Stent versus Surgery

Using stents to open clogged arteries in the neck was as safe and effective as surgery to clear the artery – a research report.

In the research, a stroke, heart attack or death occurred within 30 days in 5.2 percent of surgery patients and 4.5 percent treated with a stent made by Abbott Laboratories.

The finding may persuade Medicare to broaden coverage of carotid stents beyond patients for whom standard surgery is considered too risky. The North American study is more reliable than European research that reported surgery was safer.

The U.S. results were presented today at the American Stroke Association meeting in San Antonio. The European research was published online in the journal Lancet Neurology.

The shares of Plymouth, Minnesota-based Ev3 rose 61 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $14.55 at 4;00 PM New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. Boston Scientific, of Natick, Massachusetts, rose 1 cent to $7.74 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading while Abbott, of Abbott Park, Illinois, rose 16 cents to $54.28, and New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J fell 28 cents to $63.

About 795,000 people in the U.S. suffer a stroke each year. About 20 percent of strokes are caused by blockages in the carotid arteries that supply blood to the brain. The global market for carotid stents was about $100 million in 2009.

Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly, only covers the stents for patients with an elevated risk from surgery and at least a 70 percent or greater constriction of the artery.

Carotid stents are small metal tubes used by doctors to open clogged carotid arteries to reduce the risk of strokes without the danger of cutting open the arteries, which line the neck. Physicians use a catheter threaded from a patient’s groin area to reach the clogged portion of the artery and insert the stent.

The North American study, called Crest, was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke with additional support from Abbott. The company’s Acculink and Accunet carotid stent systems were approved for the U.S. market by the FDA in 2004, according to the company.