The coat is thin and washes off, but offers major protection.Within a year or so, almost all stents will wear a thin coating of medication to protect patients after artery-clearing procedures.

Within a year or so, almost all stents will wear a thin coating of medication to protect patients after artery-clearing procedures.

Based on encouraging recent research on a new stent, that’s the informed crystal ball view of Stephen G. Ellis, M.D., at The Cleveland Clinic. “We’ll switch almost exclusively to drug-coated stents by approximately 2005,” says Dr. Ellis, head of the catheterization laboratory at the Clinic. “There may be a mix of patients who do equally well with bare-metal stents. But they will be the distinct minority.” …

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