BACKGROUND: Recent studies suggested that drug eluting stent (DES) had less major adverse chardiac events and restenosis compared with bare metal stent (BMS) for treatment of chronic total occlusions. But it is not well known whether the benefits of DES implantation over BMS for treatment of CTO are also applicable in Koreans. We compared the clinical and angiographic midterm outcomes between DES and BMS group in Koreans. METHODS : We analyzed consecutive 32 Korean patients with 33 CTO lesions treated with DES (Cypher짰 or Taxus짰) from April 2003 to March 2004. We included only CTO lesions with successful wire transit and balloon angioplasty. Stents were freely chosen according to operator���s preferences. This CTO cohort was compared with a similar group of patients (n = 14) treated in the preceding six-month period with BMS.Results : There were more male, multivessel disease and left anterior descending artery lesions in the DES group than BMS group. Other clinical and angiographic characteristics were similar between both groups. At six months, the cumulative survival-free of major adverse cardiac events was 93.8% in the SES group versus 82.3% in the BMS group (p < 0.05). At six-month follow-up, 22 (69%) patients in the DES group and 11(79%) patients in BMS group underwent angiography. 2 (9.1%) patients in DES and 4(36.3%) in BMS group patiets had binary restenosis(p <0.05). Especially two binary restenosis in DES group occurred all in the Taxus짰 stent users (p=0.068). In-stent late loss was 0.12짹0.23mm in DES and 0.40짹0.67 in BMS group ( p <0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The use of DESs in the treatment of chronic total coronary occlusions is associated with a significant reduction in the rate of major adverse cardiac events and restenosis compared with BMS in Koreans. There were tendency that Taxus짰 was associated with more cardiovascular events than Cypher짰, and it needs to be proved in the large trial.