BACKGROUND There are few studies comparing the long-term efficacy and safety of the zotarolimus-eluting stent (ZES) with sirolimus- (SES) and paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES) in the unselected cohorts that were subject to real life clinical practice.

METHODS Total 2,769 patient who underwent successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with the three drug-eluting stents (DES) between April 2006 and July 2008 were analyzed retrospectively. A total of 1,152 patients were treated with SES, 810 with PES, and 807 with ZES. The primary analysis endpoint was cumulative rate of target-lesion failure (TLF) at 24 months, defined as the composite of cardiac death, target-vessel-related myocardial infarction (MI), and target-lesion revascularization (TLR).

RESULTS At 24 months, the incidence of TLF was significantly lower in the SES group compared with the ZES (7.6% vs. 11.3%, HR = 0.66, CI = 0.49–0.88, P = 0.005) or the PES group (7.6% vs. 10.2%, HR = 0.74, CI = 0.55–0.99, P = 0.048), while similar between the PES and the ZES groups (HR = 0.89, CI = 0.66–1.20, P = 0.443). The difference was mostly driven by higher rate of TLR in the ZES and PES groups compared with the SES group, mostly within the first year post-PCI. However, the rate of hard endpoints (cardiac death or nonfatal MI) was similar among the three groups. These results were reproduced in the propensity score-matched cohort.

CONCLUSIONS This observational study shows that the use of SES is superior to PES or ZES for the TLF in the overall and matched analysis.