Aims: We report the acute and 30 day results of the OPEN I study, a multicentre prospective single arm study evaluating the safety and feasibility of the Stentys bifurcation stent.
Methods and results: The Stentys stent is a provisional, self-expanding nitinol drug eluting or bare metal stent with small interconnections that can be disconnected by balloon angioplasty to provide access to the side-branch and full ostium coverage. Forty patients with de novo coronary bifurcation lesions were enrolled to be clinically followed-up over four years. In addition to angiographic QCA evaluation, documentary IVUS and/or OCT were used in all cases to assess the stent's deployment. The patient population consisted of 85% males with an average age of 62 years. Almost half had previous PCI, 31% previous MI and 5% previous CABG. The majority of lesions (80%) involved the LAD-D, 42% of the patients had disease affecting the side-branch, with all three arms diseased in 24% of the cases. The average lesion length in the main branch was 12.95 +/- 3.63 mm with a bifurcation angle of 55 degrees (range 30 degrees - 80 degrees). Procedural success was achieved in 39/40 cases (95.5%) due to inability to track the stent in one patient with an extremely tortuous vessel. In total 6 (15%) paclitaxel eluting and 33 (85%) BMS Stentys stents were successfully implanted, and simple disconnection of the stent mesh overlying the SB ostium was achieved in 37/39 cases (94.9%); in two cases, disconnection was not attempted. The MACE at 30 days was 5.1% as a result of one non Q-wave MI following the procedure and one ischemia-driven revascularisation six days after the procedure.
Conclusions: This first-in-man (FIM) study demonstrates that the Stentys stent is safe and feasible resulting in an excellent procedural success rate and a low MACE rate. The struts can be easily and safely disconnected to perform provisional stenting.