New Safety Data on Stents Fails to Settle Debate

Article in today’s New York Times — New Safety Data on Stents Fails to Settle Debate, by Barnaby J. Feder:

    New safety data presented here today at a conference for doctors who implant
    cardiovascular stents did little to settle the debate over whether the devices are
    being used too often and in the wrong patients.

    By the end of the day, the consensus of many of the experts appeared to be that
    the long-terms risks of deadly clotting from drug-coated heart stents had been
    exaggerated in recent weeks.

    And yet, the experts on a number of panels concluded that the emerging data
    required a more cautious approach to stenting. For at least the two best selling
    drug-coated brands, Boston Scientific’s Taxus and Johnson & Johnson’s Cypher,
    many experts agreed, there appears to be a long-term clotting risk compared
    with the use of older bare metal stents.

BGS