A stent is a piece of tubing that is often inserted into major arteries in order to prevent blockage and reduce the risk of a heart attack. They are primarily used after some sort of a heart attack or other major heart disease event, and now a new type of stent appears to be incredibly effective. The new stent is the first of its kind that automatically and continuously provides medication to the heart which is apparently being shown to be incredibly effective.
The idea of treating the heart directly with medication is not new, but never before has an artery insert been able to provide this medication. This new artery stent was tested on approximately 1200 patients and the doctors in charge of the study say that the results were absolutely amazing. The study showed that there was approximately a 50% reduction in risk of a secondary cardiac event. No other medication or implant has been able to show anywhere near as significant of a decrease as this so it will likely be studied further.
Sometime soon doctors and medical experts hope that it will soon be much more common for these drug infused stents to be used. It is only a matter of time before they are much more available and the overall heart health of patients will likely improve dramatically.