The unpredictable resorption of bioresorbable scaffolds—A tale of two ABSORBs

TL;DR

Bioresorbable stents can unpredictably resorb in coronary arteries, leading to varied healing outcomes even when implanted in the same patient.

Contribution

This case report highlights differential resorption of two bioresorbable stents in the same patient, revealing unpredictable healing patterns.

Findings

One bioresorbable stent showed complete healing with minimal remnants, while the other retained visible strut remnants.

The strut remnants resembled the original stent structure on OCT imaging.

This variability in resorption challenges the reliability of bioresorbable stents for consistent clinical outcomes.

Abstract

Bioresorbable stents represent a revolutionary treatment for coronary artery disease. Such a device offers the prospect for complete naturalization of artery lumen after strut resorption and restoration of vasomotion while curtailing the duration of dual anti‐platelet therapy. The prototype bioresorbable scaffold (BRS—ABSORB GT1) demonstrated good feasibility and safety in the initial studies compared to metallic drug eluting stent but later fell out of favor due to multiple report of stent thrombosis and target lesion failure. Unpredictable resorption of struts turned out to be one of the “Achilles heel” of the BRS and stent strut were still visible in vessel on optical coherence tomography (OCT) at 3 years. We report a case of differential resorption of two ABSORB BRS implanted simultaneously in the same patient by the same operator. Follow up coronary angiogram revealed only minimal plaques on right coronary artery (RCA) and left anterior descending artery (LAD). The BRS were identified on cine‐angiogram by their radio‐opaque markers at both ends. The OCT run in LAD artery revealed “ghost remnants” of BRS struts in LAD, whereas the RCA BRS had completely healed with minimal “ghost” struts. The ghost remnants of BRS resembled the original “Check box” appearance on OCT during the index implantation.

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