Drug eluting stents, which are coated with a pharmacological antiproliferative agent that aims to combat restenosis, are now part of the therapeutic armamentarium in interventional cardiology. During recent months, doubts have been raised about the safety of these devices. In an attempt to clarify the situation and to provide clinical and interventional cardiologists with guidelines for their use, the Société Française de Cardiologie has deemed useful to examine the most recently published data on this subject. This document, drafted in October 2007 by a consensus of experts, will obviously need to be revised as further clinical data are produced in the coming months and years.