Stent wars: Overuse of drug-eluting stents raising costs, study suggests | MassDevice.com On Call

Over-reliance on drug-eluting stents over bare-metal stents may represent an unnecessary burden on healthcare system, a new study suggests.

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 .

If just half of the low-risk patients currently receiving DES got bare-metal stents instead it would mean more than $200 million saved and only about a 0.5% increase in target lesion revascularization procedures, TheHeart.org [1] reported.