Stroke stents may double risk in patients over 70
Thursday, September 9, 2010
By: Maria Cheng

The Washington Post

Stroke patients over 70 who get stents to keep their arteries open may be doubling their risk of having another stroke or dying compared to patients who get surgery instead, a new study says.

European researchers examined past studies from more than 3,400 stroke patients, including 1,725 who got stents and 1,708 who had surgery, and found that a patient's age makes a big difference in how effective stents are.

In patients under 70, 5.8 percent who got the stents had a stroke or died within four months of the initial procedure, compared to 5.7 percent of those who had a surgery instead.

But in patients older than 70, 12 percent of those who got a stent had a stroke or died in that same time period versus 5.9 percent of the patients who only had surgery.

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