What is the TAXUS® stent?
The TAXUS® stent, a medical device manufactured by Boston Scientific Inc, is a small, expandable sleeve of stainless steel mesh used to prop open a coronary artery and improve blood flow in an artery that has been narrowed by coronary artery disease. The TAXUS® stent is a drug eluting stent, (DES): the mesh of the TAXUS® stent is coated with Paclitaxel, a medication intended to prevent the reblocking of the artery, or restenosis. Since the FDA approved the TAXUS® stent in 2004, more than 3 million TAXUS® stents have been implanted in patients in the US and around the world for treatment of coronary artery disease. The FDA required Boston Scientific to follow patients from their original clinical trials for 5 years after implantation of the TAXUS® stent and also to follow new patients who had the TAXUS® stent implanted. What health problems are associated with the TAXUS® stent? The FDA-mandated follow-up studies have found many cases of thrombosis, blood clot formation, at the site of t
