FDA says drug-eluting stents are safe & effective in stable patients with single-vessel disease; even so, they'll have to take Plavix (clopidogrel) & aspirin for a year or more...up to a lifetime. High-risk patients with multivessel disease are much more
Editorial on the "Clinical Outcomes Utilizing Revascularization and Aggressive Drug Evaluation (COURAGE) trial," which studied optimal medical treatment with or without percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for stable coronary disease.
Two Swiss meta-analyses have found an increased rate of myocardial infarction and death with the Cypher (sirolimus-eluting) coronary stent, which is likely to put a serious chill in interventional cardiology's infatuation with drug-coated devices