Costs improve picture for stents vs surgery: study

"Using drug-coated stents compares more favorably to bypass surgery in some heart patients with difficult-to-treat clogged arteries when economics and quality of life are considered, researchers said on Saturday. The benefits of stenting procedures were more pronounced for patients with less complex coronary disease, a study found. The results, presented at the American College of Cardiology scientific meeting in Orlando, come from a substudy of the SYNTAX trial, which was released last September. The 1,800-patient SYNTAX trial showed bypass surgery and procedures with Boston Scientific's Taxus stent were equally safe, but those patients receiving Taxus were more likely to need a repeat procedure, tipping the results in favor of surgery. The new report adds information about cost-effectiveness and quality of life to the comparison." - Post Chronicle