
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Physicians may be relying too heavily on drug-eluting stents for patients who aren’t at significant risk of restenosis, a preference that could represent an unnecessary financial burden on the healthcare system, a new study suggests.
Opting for less expensive bare-metal stents for patients whose blood vessels aren’t at high risk of re-narrowing could save hundreds of millions of dollars per year without significantly increasing patients’ risk of requiring a repeat procedure, according to a retrospective study of the National Cardiovascular Data Registry CathPCI .