Drug-Coated Balloons and Bioresorbable Scaffolds in Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissections.
Marios Sagris, Marios G Bantidos, Nikolaos Stalikas, Barbara Fyntanidou, Christos Kofos, Konstantinos Tsioufis, Efstratios Karagiannidis, Nikolaos Patsourakos
Abstract
Open AccessSpontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an increasingly recognized cause of acute coronary syndromes in younger women without typical atherosclerotic risk factors. Its distinct pathophysiology and vessel fragility create unique challenges for revascularization. Conservative management is preferred when hemodynamics and coronary flow permit, but selected cases necessitate intervention, primarily percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Despite growing insights into SCAD pathomechanics-the "outside-in" and "inside-out" hypotheses-and the central role of intracoronary imaging (OCT/IVUS), optimal device strategies remain under-researched. The present review covers contemporary SCAD-PCI pitfalls and limitations, expanding to the mechanistic underpinnings and procedural applications of drug-coated balloons (DCB) and bioresorbable scaffolds (BRS) as "leave-nothing-behind" alternatives. Both approaches have advantages and drawbacks but are attractive in selected scenarios: DCB delivers antiproliferative therapy without permanent caging, and BRS provides temporary scaffolding (amenable to overlap when required) with the potential to restore biomechanics/vasomotion after resorption. Acknowledging that definitive evidence is lacking and current data are largely observational, the review finally sets future research priorities including head-to-head trials of different DCB types and evaluation of next-generation, thinner-strut, predictably resorbing BRS. The overarching question is whether-and how-these modalities can be integrated into standardized, imaging-guided interventional algorithms for SCAD.