Drug-Coated Stents Don’t Improve Patient Survival, Large Study Reports

“The largest trial ever conducted on stents — tiny tubes that help keep heart arteries open — suggests that pricey drug-coated (or eluting) versions may perform no better for patients over the long-term, in terms of patient survival, compared to cheaper, “bare metal” versions.”

“The evidence in favor of contemporary drug-eluting stents over bare-metal stents may not be as strong as has been thought,” said study author Dr. Kaare Harald Bonaa. He’s from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. Bare-metal stents were used in the early days of stenting. But, arteries sometimes re-closed around the stent. That meant surgeons often had to go back in and re-open the vessel — a procedure called revascularization. Then came drug-eluting stents. These devices were coated with drugs to prevent the vessel re-closure that plagued so many patients. These newer stents quickly became popular with doctors, but at prices that were often thousands of dollars more than bare-metal versions, according to previous research.”

Read the full article: Drug-Coated Stents Don’t Improve Patient Survival, Large Study Reports