Acute coronary artery occlusion complicates some 5% of balloon angioplasty procedures and often makes emergency surgical revascularization necessary. Initial experience is reported with emergency implantation of endoluminal stents for acute vessel closure following coronary balloon angioplasty. 10 patients received one stent and 2 patients two stents during the study period. In the study group, implantation was technically successful in all cases: there were no deaths, Q-wave infarctions or cases requiring emergency surgery.--2 patients showed a moderate rise in creatinine phosphokinase in the first 48 hours. During a mean follow-up period of 4 months (range 1-21 months) there have been no deaths and no cases requiring elective coronary bypass surgery. 10 patients underwent control angiography and none have developed significant restenosis within the stented segment. For selected patients, coronary artery stenting appears to be a promising technique as an alternative to emergency bypass surgery after acute vessel occlusion during balloon angioplasty.