Is American Medicine Too Stent Happy?

Originally at Miller-McCune.com

May 5, 2010 -- Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of Americans walking around today owe their lives to a miniscule piece of mesh called a coronary stent used to prop open a clogged artery. For heart attack patients, stents provide the greatest chance of recovery of any medical device out there. That’s not where researchers disagree.

Since 1994 when the Food and Drug Administration first approved doctors implanting stents as a voluntary procedure — for instance, to relieve chest pain from stable heart disease — the use of stents in America became more than a lifesaving breakthrough. It became big business.

Over the past decade, hospitals opened up cardiac catheterization labs in record numbers and interventional cardiologists made huge amounts of money for a relatively easy procedure. By 2005, the stent market had reached nearly $4 billion. But like most things that provide quick relief, there was a cost in both dollars and possible side effects.

Despite upheaval, the stent market continues to grow, overcoming several recalls and hundreds of pending lawsuits brought by patients. Stenting is by and large a safe practice, but with each of the major advancements in stent technology came setbacks in which people died. Doctors today better understand the precautions and limitations, though based on the numbers, physicians still do not fully comply with what many researchers see as appropriate medicine.

Raed the full article at Miller-McCune.com >>