The remarkable drop in restenosis rates is largely attributable to the use of stents as an adjunct to angioplasty, which has contributed to making the results of angioplasty more predictable and reliable. The flexibility of devices has significantly improved and stents now conform to most clinical targets. Suboptimal results after balloon angioplasty now account for 80% of all stent procedure indications. Aspirin and ticlopidine are now used universally in stent patients. Refinements of the mechanical approach give restenosis rates of the order of 10%, but further reductions will be possible by combining optimized stent design with active modulation of intimal hyperplasia. Local drug delivery and radiotherapy appear to be promising approaches, at least as far as medium-term results are concerned, but very longterm results are another issue...