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February 28, 2007 -- 6:45pm EST

Argument Resurrected: Stents vs. Surgery
The front page of Sunday's New York Times reported on the three-decade-old Celebrity Deathmatch between surgeons and interventional cardiologists. Titled, In the Stent Era, Heart Bypasses Get a New Look, the article, by reporter Barnaby Feder, postulated that, given the recent concerns over drug-eluting stent problems, in some patients bypass surgery may be a better solution than stents for treating the problem of coronary artery disease.

But the Times article left out a few problems associated with bypass surgery, such as vein grafts closing up (they then get reopened using...ahem...stents). Also there's a growing body of evidence that many bypass patients experience "cognitive decline'. In the recent 5-year follow up of the Octopus study, 50% of the patients were classified as having "cognitive decline", leading Yale-based MD Harlan Krumholz to suggest that this risk be made part of the informed consent for CABG patients.

And then there's Dana Carvey...but read the full article....

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