Restenosis Stent Study (REST) confirms lower reintervention for stents
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Bleeding complications are twice as common in heparinised stent patients but PTCA still requires more reinterventions, show early data from the multinational Restenosis Stent study, REST. Dr Raimund Erbel of the University of Essen in Germany said interim analysis of the first 200 patients to complete six months follow up in the 18-centre study showed an average difference of 0.24 mm in minimum luminal diameter (MLD) in the favour of stent patients. However, 12.2% of the stent patients suffered from bleeding complications compared with only 5.9% of those who underwent PTCA. As a result the average hospital stay for those receiving stent treatment was 5.8 days while PTCA patients left after 3.2 days.