The Relevance of Bare-Metal Stent in the Therapy of Coronary Artery Disease in 2020

First percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) using an expandable balloon was performed by Andreas Gruentzig in 1977. Since then, the process has seen exponential development. Stent deployment was the most important milestone in this journey. An original stent made of metals or metal alloys was called a bare-metal stent (BMS). They ruled the roost for more than a decade when stents coated with antiproliferative drug impregnated polymers, called drug-eluting stent came and became the tool of choice in almost all clinical scenarios of PTCA. However, still today, BMS has got a small but significant place in the cardiac catheter laboratory. The relevance of BMS in the therapy of coronary artery disease in today's world is reviewed in this article.