Principal investigators of the LIFE-BTK randomised controlled trial delve into the technological improvements underpinning the Esprit drug-eluting resorbable scaffold (DRS; Abbott) from its previous iteration used in the coronaries, while discussing how this trial places this device at the heart of infrapopliteal disease treatment for critical limb-threatening ischaemia (CLTI) patients.
Sahil A Parikh (Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, USA), Brian G DeRubertis (New York Presbyterian–Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York, USA) and Ramon L Varcoe (Prince of Wales Hospital and University of New South Wales, Randwick, Australia), comment on the question of whether challenging lesions were treated in the LIFE-BTK trial and how this device will perform in real world disease including long lesions, calcified disease and, bifurcation disease. They speak to Vascular News at VIVA 2023 (30 October–2 November, Las Vegas, USA).
“We always start in every vascular territory with the straightforward patients, and then move to the more complex and that is what is anticipated with this device,” they say.
The triallists also seek the development of an algorithm to gain understanding in which patients this works particularly well in and “which ones to be cautious with”. A cost utility analysis to make sure this is a cost-effective form of therapy, is also underway.
