PCI in severely degenerated saphenous vein graft using a novel mesh-covered stent together with a conventional embolic protection system.

Although the protection with filter-based devices during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in a saphenous vein graft (SVG) reduces major adverse cardiac events, a large number of patients undergoing SVG PCI still experience these events. New methods must be used in order to reduce this incidence. Novel local plaque-trapping stents have been developed and show promise in pilot human testing. We present 2 cases of patients with degenerated SVGs and a large amount of plaque volume, who underwent coronary angioplasty in our department. Considering the high risk of distal embolization, we used a standard distal embolic protection system and a recently developed mesh-covered stent. This combination approach has not yet been studied very well.