A new, Irish-made coronary stent has been successfully implanted for the first time at the 10th Annual Live PCI Course held in the Trinity Centre for Health Sciences at St James's Hospital earlier this month. The Promus PREMIER™ Stent System, manufactured by Boston Scientific in Ballybrit, Galway, is the seventh drug-eluting coronary stent developed and commercialised by the company in the past decade. Although stents keep arteries open and allow normal blood flow to narrowed blood vessels, excess tissue can grow and blow the stent again as the artery wall heals around the stent. Promus PREMIER™ Stent System is a drug-eluting stent (DES) – a thin, flexible metal stent that has been coated with a drug and a polymer to deliver a drug locally and reduce tissue in-growth. This lowers the risk of stent thrombosis and and improves long-term clinical results. "I’m very pleased to be the first to implant the new Promus PREMIER™ stents,” said Prof David Foley, interventional cardiologist at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital and Mater Private Hospital. “It represents another fine improvement in drug-eluting stent design to improve our ability to treat severe coronary artery disease using minimally invasive techniques. I’m particularly pleased to see a next-generation stent system with the latest technological advances in medical devices being made in our own country for the benefit of patients all across the world.” Last year, Boston Scientific designated the Galway site as its global centre of excellence for DES products. The Promus PREMIER Stent System has customised platinum chromium alloy architecture to provide strength, without compromising flexibility. An enhanced low-profile delivery system features a shorter, more visible tip, while a dual-layer balloon and Bi-Segment™ inner lumen catheter is designed to facilitate precise stent delivery across lesions. The Everolimus drug and fluorinated co-polymer stent coating have been studied in multiple randomised clinical trials demonstrating long-term safety and efficacy.