BMJ  2007;334 (24 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39162.436458.3A

Editor's Choice

US editor's choice

Stents or surgery?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Stents are in the news. Which kind should you recommend: drug eluting stents, which may prevent early restenosis better but are more expensive and may lead to late thrombosis? Or bare metal stents, which may not be as good at preventing restenosis initially but are cheaper and less likely to lead to late thrombosis? News reports say that this controversy has now led to fewer doctors recommending drug eluting stents and some insurance companies reconsidering their coverage of them.

The larger question, of course, is not just which type of stent to use. It is, "What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of the various treatments for patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease—medical therapy only, percutaneous transluminal angioplasty with stents, and coronary artery bypass grafting." This week's BMJ helps to answer this question.

Omer Aziz and colleagues examine the clinical effectiveness of surgery versus stenting for isolated left anterior descending . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Coronary revascularisation

David P Taggart
BMJ 2007 334: 593-594. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Meta-analysis of minimally invasive internal thoracic artery bypass versus percutaneous revascularisation for isolated lesions of the left anterior descending artery

Omer Aziz, Christopher Rao, Sukhmeet Singh Panesar, Catherine Jones, Stephen Morris, Ara Darzi, and Thanos Athanasiou
BMJ 2007 334: 617. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Cost effectiveness analysis of minimally invasive internal thoracic artery bypass versus percutaneous revascularisation for isolated lesions of the left anterior descending artery

Christopher Rao, Omer Aziz, Sukhmeet Singh Panesar, Catherine Jones, Stephen Morris, Ara Darzi, and Thanos Athanasiou
BMJ 2007 334: 621. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Cost effectiveness of clinically appropriate decisions on alternative treatments for angina pectoris: prospective observational study

S C Griffin, J A Barber, A Manca, M J Sculpher, S G Thompson, M J Buxton, and H Hemingway
BMJ 2007 334: 624. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Online poll

Find out more >>