Drug eluting stents: maximising benefit and minimising cost

Drug eluting stents: maximising benefit and minimising cost.

A policy of selective implantation of drug eluting stents, in a minority of lesions most likely to benefit, seems to be a rational way to employ this new and currently costly technology.

Drug-eluting stents: cost versus clinical benefit.

The publication in January 2001 of the first-in-man results showing zero restenosis after sirolimus-eluting stent implantation produced enormous excitement in the cardiological community.1 The long-awaited tool—a safe, restenosis-proof, easy-to-use stent—had been found. It was not too long thereafter that paclitaxel-eluting stents also demonstrated their capability to decrease restenosis. Today...

Drug-eluting stents: costs versus clinical benefit.

Since the advent of coronary angioplasty in 1977, the procedure has changed from an uncommonly used method of treating simple discrete lesions1 to one that challenges surgical revascularization.2 Step by step, major anatomic obstacles have fallen as this procedure has been applied to an expanding patient population. Technical breakthroughs including steerable and movable guidewires, low-profile...

Survival Benefit With Drug-Eluting Stents in Observational Studies

Background—Recently, there has been increased interest in leveraging observational studies for comparative effectiveness research. Without robust and valid risk adjustment, however, findings from these nonrandomized studies may remain biased. Previous studies examining long-term mortality with drug-eluting stents (DESs) have demonstrated discordant results between randomized trials and observat...

Drug-eluting stents.