Drug-coated balloons are superior to bare metal stents for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in older patients at high bleeding risk, a study shows.

Finnish researchers investigated whether using drug-coated balloons was non-inferior to PCI using bare metal stents for patients with new atherosclerotic coronary-artery lesions and at increased bleeding risk.

Results of the DEBUT trial of 208 patients (mean age 77) showed that at nine months, the primary composite endpoint of major cardiovascular adverse events had occurred in one patient (1%) in the balloon group and in 15 patients (14%) in the bare metal stent group.

No patients in the balloon group required ischaemia-driven revascularisation of the target lesion, compared with six patients (6%) in the bare metal stent group, the team reports in the Lancet.