Contemporary stent treatment of coronary bifurcations

Abstract

Treatment of coronary bifurcation lesions represents a challenging area in interventional cardiology. The introduction of drug-eluting stents (DES) reduced restenosis in the main branch (MB). However, restenosis at the ostium of the side branch (SB) remains a problem. Although stenting the MB with provisional SB stenting seems to be the prevailing approach, in the era of DES various two-stent techniques emerged (crush) or were re-introduced (V or simultaneous kissing stents, crush, T, culottes, Y, skirt) to allow stenting in the SB when needed. This review describes in detail various techniques used for implantation of two stents by intention to treat.