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US Taxpayers Spend Over $800million A YEAR On Unnecessary Heart Stents, Report Finds

Stents are small mesh tubes inserted into weak or narrow arteries and other passageways to keep them open in patients with coronary artery disease, widen arteries clogged with plaque, and keep blood flowing.

The new report estimated that one in five stents implanted between 2019 and 2021 were unnecessary because the patient was not at high risk for a heart attack, the Lown Institute, an independent research firm, found.

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‘More dangerous than useful’: 1 in 5 coronary stents implanted by cardiologists are unnecessary, wasting $800M per year

“When physicians continue a practice despite the evidence against it, it becomes more dangerous than useful.” cardiologist Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute, said in statement. “The overuse of stents is incredibly wasteful and puts hundreds of thousands of patients in harm’s way.” More