VEGF and restenosis: the rest of the story.

The challenge of restenosis has been with us since the dawn of intravascular percutaneous interventions. Much effort has been spent on developing strategies designed to effectively treat it. These ranged from mechanical means such as minimal plaque removal with an idea of not “disturbing” the media (directional atherectomy), to extensive debulking (rotational atherectomy), to creating the largest possible lumen and then preventing the recoil (stenting), to systemic and local use of numerous drug classes including antithrombotic, antiplatelet, antiproliferative drugs, calcium channel blockers, statins, steroids, and other antiinflammatory agents among the others.