This case series raises further awareness of the potential for longitudinal shortening with the Promus Element™ (Boston Scientific, MN) drug-eluting stent (DES) platform. With safety at the forefront of DES development, newer generation systems are utilizing thinner platforms with little or no polymer. Although these contemporary, ultrathin platforms also improve conformability and deliverability, specific design characteristics might inadvertently reduce longitudinal strength. To date, there are no randomized data addressing this issue in vivo for any stent platform, with opinion based on individual experience and bench testing. We report five cases of longitudinal shortening with the Promus Element stent occurring in our institution over a 15-month period. During the same period, we experienced only isolated cases with other second generation DES platforms. Our experience supports recently published bench-top data correlating the two-link design of this platform with the risk of compression.
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