There is no one ‘best heart stent” in Singapore or elsewhere.
There are many different stents available right from bare metal stents (used seldom nowadays) to Drug-coated stents (third and fourth generation) to absorbable stents (more recent entrants)
However different patients and blood vessels do better with different kinds of stents.
In diabetes there are certain kind of stents (depending on the drug, the polymer coating etc) which have been shown to confer a distinct advantage.
Similarly in elderly patients or those about to undergo surgery certain stents which promote faster healing (ie the polymer and drug coating disappear faster) have an advantage as the blood thinners can be reduced rapidly in a month or so.
In certain kind of blood vessels (this depends on how the vessel wall looks on intravascular imaging – IVUS or OCT) absorbable stents – made of an absorbable metal may be better but this cannot be used if the vessel has significant calcification as its quite a soft metal.
If the blood vessel is shown to have a more fibrous thickened vessel a copper-chromium alloy platinum-chromium alloy stent with thicker struts and more radial strength maybe a better choice.
Therefore multiple factors have to be taken into account before implanting a suitable stent.
