Study: Bypass better than stents in long term

By MARIA CHENG , AP Medical Writer, Medicine & Health / Research

(AP) -- For heart patients with clogged arteries, the choice between bypass surgery or an angioplasty may come down to one question: How many procedures would you like to have? In research presented Monday at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Munich, experts concluded that while bypass surgery and angioplasty offer comparable results, patients who have angioplasties are twice as likely to require another procedure within a year.

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Posted by Popawsandy3 09/01/08 21:10

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Having experienced a 99 % blockage of the left anterior descending [LAD] artery feeding my heart in October 2004 , I received 3 Taxus Express2 stints , along with a booster pump to help the heart ,[which was removed after 36 hours]. I had a heart attack during the initial heart catheterization , however I was released from the hospital within seven days and was back to living a normal life within 30 days . I have been taking Plavix and 89 mg. asperin since that time with no blood clots or strokes since then . Personally , I would certainly recommend it over bypass surgery considering the trauma and recovery time even if the stints had to be repeated several times over a lifetime . I've also had lung cancer with the removal of the upper lobe of my right lung and 16 weeks chemotherapy . The heart Cath. and stint is almost outpatient surgery by comparison with only 2 or 3 days hospitalization required.

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Posted by flubber 09/02/08 11:48

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I had three stints implanted in 1998 and recently had one more because one of the first three was clogged. Someone told me that the life expectancy of a stint is 10 years (?). My feeling on this is the story doesn't tell all the facts. The risks are way higher in my estimation with surgery of any kind.