Researchers studied the clinical impact and cost-effectiveness of using drug-eluting stents at different rates. The use of drug-eluting stents decreased from 92 percent in 2004 to 68 percent in 2007. They found that in this period, although the incidence of target lesion revascularization increased one percent, the rates of death or myocardial infarction within one year did not change. In addition, total cardiovascular costs per patient decreased by $401 from 2004-2007.
The authors concluded that unrestricted use of drug-eluting stents may be a relatively inefficient use of healthcare resources.
Read the abstract in Circulation on drug-eluting stents.
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