Are drug-eluting stents worth the cost?
Over the past 3 decades, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI, or balloon angioplasty) has significantly changed the treatment of coronary artery disease (narrowing of the arteries supplying the heart muscle). Unlike the more invasive coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, angioplasty is a nonsurgical procedure in which a tiny catheter with a balloon is inserted into the coronary artery. The balloon is then inflated to push aside the plaque causing the narrowing. Often a stent (wire mesh tube) is left in place to help keep the treated artery open; however, restenosis, or repeat narrowing, of the artery can occur over time. Drug-eluting stents were recently introduced to lower this risk of restenosis and have become an attractive alternative to bare-metal stents. However, they are much more expensive than bare-metal stents, and studies have shown no significant differences in rates of death or heart attack between patient groups receiving either type of stent. Two articles that
