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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Study Compares Bypass Surgery To Angioplasty

We've been doing amazing things with stenting lately. One of the absolute indications for cardiac surgery has always been "left main disease". Since the emergence of drug eluting stenting in 2003, we have been working on stenting the left main coronary artery in patients deemed "to sick for surgery." These patient have done remarkably well. Now, we are starting to perform left main stenting on lower risk patients. The below mentioned review reveals that indeed, for the right patient, the results of left main stenting may be equivalent to cardiac surgery. I anticipate that sooner rather than later, both left main stenting and cardiac surgery will be officially indicated for treatment of "left main disease."

From Medical News Today:

At 56, Tim Obrenski found himself getting so exhausted that he couldn't even pull weeds from his garden. A visit to the cardiologist uncovered a major blockage in his heart's left main artery, and he was told he needed bypass surgery. Obrenski's search for alternatives to surgery brought him to UCLA interventional cardiologist Dr. Michael Lee...

http://mnt.to/f/3Bc9


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