Abstract
Background. Whether routine implantation of coronary stents is the best strategy to treat flow-limiting coronary stenoses is unclear. An alternative approach is to do balloon angioplasty and provisionally use stents only to treat suboptimum results. We did a multicentre trial to compare the outcomes of patients treated with these strategies. Methods. We randomly assigned 479 patients undergoing single-vessel coronary angioplasty routine stent implantation or initial balloon angioplasty and provisional stenting. We followed up patients for 6 months to determine the composite rate of death, myocardial infarction, cardiac surgery, and target-vessel revascularisation. Results. Stents were implanted in 227 (98.7%) of the patients assigned routine stenting. 93 (37%) patients assigned balloon angioplasty had at least one stent placed because of suboptimum angioplasty results. At 6 months the composite endpoint was significantly lower in the routine stent strategy (14 events, 6.1%) than with the strategy of balloon angioplasty with provisional stenting (37 events. 14.9%, p = 0.003). The cost of the initial revascularisation procedure was higher than when a routine stent strategy was used (US$389 vs $339, p < 0.001) but at 6 months, average per-patient hospital costs did not differ ($10,206 vs $10,490). Bootstrap replication of g-month cost data showed continued economic benefit of the routine stent strategy. Interpretation. Routine stent implantation leads to better acute and long-term clinical outcomes at a cost similar to that of initial balloon angioplasty with provisional stenting.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2199-2203 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Lancet |
Volume | 355 |
Issue number | 9222 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 24 2000 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Supported in part by unrestricted grants from the Johnson and Johnson Interventional Systems, Warren, NJ; Guidant Corporation, San Jose, CA; the MITI Research Foundation, Seattle, WA; and the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development.