Coronary-Stenting Abuse Cases Highlighted in Bloomberg Story

Reported by theheart.org - Medscape Cardiology

Coronary-Stenting Abuse Cases Highlighted in Bloomberg Story:

NEW YORK, NY — An article in yesterday's financial press surveys recent high-profile cases of alleged coronary-stenting overuse, described by a sources as "just the tip of the iceberg," and alternates them with stories from some of the patients involved[1]. Although there are a few comments from leaders in the cardiology community that try to put the cases in perspective, the 3500-word story ultimately portrays a subspecialty too often abused by practitioners bending or ignoring the guidelines in pursuit of procedure-based profits.
"When stents are used to restore blood flow in heart-attack patients, few dispute they are beneficial," notes the story from reporters Peter Waldman, David Armstrong, and Sydney P Freedberg published yesterday in Bloomberg BusinessWeek . But heart attacks account for only about half of stenting procedures, it notes.
"Among the other half —elective-surgery patients in stable condition—overuse, death, injury, and fraud have accompanied the devices' use as a go-to treatment," the article says, citing "thousands of pages of court documents and regulatory filings, interviews with 37 cardiologists and 33 heart patients or their survivors, and more than a dozen medical studies."
Coronary stenting "belongs to one of the bleakest chapters in the history of Western medicine,” the article quotes Dr Nortin Hadler (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill).

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