Posted on 10/20/2007 8:11:31 PM PDT by neverdem
The tiny stent sparked a lucrative industry--and made Dr. Samin Sharma a star. Then questions arose about the device's safety and efficacy.
On a sweltering summer morning, Dr. Samin K. Sharma marches into the cardiology wing of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, prepared for a 16-hour day in which he will clear and repair the arteries of 18 patients. Sharma specializes in installing stents, tiny metal devices that hold open blocked blood vessels. As he'll be the first to note, he does more stent procedures than anyone else in doctor-rich New York and possibly in the entire country. An immigrant from India who had to plead for his first cardiology job here, he has played a critical role in popularizing the stent as an alternative to drugs. In the process, he has helped fuel a booming stent market and revive the fortunes of Mount Sinai, a prestigious old institution that just a few years ago was stumbling financially.
But this morning a slight shadow of doubt hangs over the court of the King of Stents. On the table, patient David Viggiano is asking questions. (Although sedated, stent patients remain awake.) Viggiano, a 42-year-old security guard with colorful tattoos on his arms, suffered a heart attack three years ago near his home in suburban New York. He was riding his bicycle through a cemetery, a setting that still haunts him. As he awaits his procedure, Viggiano is aware that qualms have arisen over certain kinds of stents. "I heard they had problems," he says, as an X-ray machine whirs back and forth over his chest.
Sharma considers the patient's hazy anxiety. Since Viggiano is relatively young, and potent drugs may interfere with his active lifestyle, the doctor sticks with his preferred treatment and installs a stent. "Everything looks good," Sharma...
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
Been wearing five stents since a heart attack a couple years ago. We now walk/jog five miles a day or ride our bikes 25-35. Just returned from four days and 36 miles climbing trails in the Rockies. They are OK with me.
Bet there is no one like him in socialized medicine utopias like the UK or Canada...
One since 1996 and counting.
I would propose large doses of fish oil and allicin (chew your fresh garlic) as a safer and more effective alternative to a stent.
I was thinking COD LIVER OIL.....and CoQ10....
I would rather have a stent than be cut open again.
Mitral valve replacement 1990.
1 heart stent 2006.
On mine since 2004 and counting - I run 4.5 miles or bike 20 moderately hilly miles a day.
Of course, I’m keeping the maker of Plavix afloat, but hey, it beats the alternative!
The only medicine I take is 1 regular aspirin a day.
My health is good today, and I'm thankful to have found very good doctors who knew what they were doing. I am living a full life (well, a full live for a senior citizen, which I definitely am--LOL!)
CoQ10 will definately strengthen your heart, but the stent is usually placed as a result of angina scaring the patient.
One doesn't get to be a senior citizen without living!
Does this mean that all the stents, like breast implants, shall have to be removed? This would seem to be an extraordinarily difficult procedure....
Naw, it can all be solved with a class-action suit, in which 10,000 lawyers represent all the thousands of patients who have undergone the procedure, collecting some 75% of the actual disbursements from the malpractice insurance companies, distributing the remaining 25% to the members of the class, and totally eliminating this procedure from practice ever again in this country.
Stents are not the panacea that everyone says they are. The current literature shows that if you need more than one stent, and CERTAINLY more than two, you are better off having bypass surgery — longevity is better and quality of life is better as well.
It would be an extremely dangerous proceedure. tampering with the stent would almost certainly result in embolisms going who knows where!
Better Than Pap: Blood test detects cervical cancer
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
My uncle has had stints put in 3 times now. The first time was after he had a heart attack and even after the stints were put in he had two more heart attacks. They placed more stints after each heart attack, but they have kept him from needing open heart surgery, so far anyway!
You’re right. Correct spelling would be helpful, too,though—LOL!
Bump
Had a stress test a week ago per my companies demand for annual physical.....in my mid fifties I figured it was a good idea and they used cardiolite ? Anyway long story short...Doc said I was healthy ......no blockages, zero problems ect etc .....
I was worried due my father having to have a triple bypass at age 45...easy to do , no stress stress test per se.....:o)
Anyway, to die of heart problems you gotta have a heart.
LOL.
L
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