Meta-Analysis of Drug-Coated Balloons vs. Stents for Coronary Artery Disease

Twenty-three randomized controlled trials with 8,123 patients compare drug-coated balloons and drug-eluting stents for coronary artery disease. This systematic review and meta-analysis, authored by Yuting Wang and updated in May 2026, provides lesion-specific efficacy and safety outcomes. It includes subgroup analyses for lesion type, vessel size, clinical presentation, and balloon drug type.

Use Cases

• Comparing treatment efficacy for in-stent restenosis based on the lesion-specific subgroup analysis
• Analyzing safety signals for different drug coatings based on the reported cardiac death outcomes
• Evaluating treatment strategies for small vessel disease based on the reported target lesion revascularization results
• Assessing the impact of clinical presentation on outcomes based on the exploratory analysis for STEMI, NSTEMI, and unstable angina

Strengths

• Includes data from 23 randomized controlled trials, a substantial evidence base
• Analyzes 8,123 patient records, providing statistical power for many outcomes
• Conducts detailed subgroup analyses by lesion type, vessel size, and drug coating
• Uses a systematic review methodology with a PROSPERO registration

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Some findings, like the cardiac death signal for sirolimus balloons, are exploratory and based on limited events

Provenance

Source

Systematic search of PubMed, Embase, CENTRAL, and Web of Science for RCTs.

Collection Method

Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials using random-effects models.

Time Range

Trials from database inception to March 2026.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-18 05:53:53

Geography

Global (not specified, but from international trial databases).