Study: Brain stents for stroke counterproductive

A new government study published Wednesday says that brain stents intended to reduce the chance of stroke in high-risk patients, are counterproductive.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The stent, known as the Gateway-Wingspan system, and modeled on stents  used on heart patients, does not reduce the chance of stroke any more than medication and lifestyle changes. In fact, the study showed that patients who had the stent suffered more strokes than those without it. 

The stents were approved for use in 2005 in the hopes of saving people from deadly or debilitating strokes, and indeed the stent has been widely used since and has been on track to become the standard procedure for treating high-risk patients. Now, that is likely to change.

An independent panel, that was auditing the experimental study actually terminated the research early as soon as the pattern of increased risk emerged. In fact, the overall concern was so great that the New England Journal of Medicine actually published the results early, online, to make doctors and patients aware of the danger.

The study was intended to evaluate 764 patients ages 30-80, who had previously suffered a stroke. They study however, only recruited 451 patients. The patients were given medication and told to make lifestyle changes (advice) to reduce their risk. Half of those patients also received the stents. Of the half that received stents, an alarming 14.7 percent had another stroke or died within 30 days compared to 5.8 percent who only had drugs and advice. 

Researchers have not yet found a reason for the higher rates of stroke. Intuitively, the stents should work. Researcher suspect the procedure for implanting the stents could be at fault, possibly disturbing plaque in arteries and subsequently causing a stroke. 

For now, use of the Gateway-Wingspan is likely to be curtailed, at least until researchers can figure out why the procedure, or the device itself, is causing the strokes they're supposed to prevent. 

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