stents

Attorneys for patients who must have Guidant pacemakers removed say the company's offer of $2,500 doesn't come anywhere near covering the costs of the procedure. The pacemaker recall affects thousands of patients who learned they have faulty pacemakers and defibrillators when Guidant disclosed a series of serious malfunctions involving the units. The replacement surgery is proving difficult, heart specialists say, because of a risk that the lead attaching the device to the heart can …

In the future, when business school classes meet to discuss the things that can go wrong when two companies decide to merge, it's likely that Guidant's agreement to be acquired by Johnson & Johnson will be held up as a key case study. Things went wrong almost from the start for the Indianapolis-based device maker, which found its case for a merger seriously damaged by the publicity surrounding major recalls of key pacemaker and defibrillator lines. At the time of writing, barring a …

The FDA said it is investigating problems with Boston Scientific's Taxus stent after a Michigan hospital suspended use of the devices. William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak stopped using the stents for a two-week period in late September and early October after a series of problems, The Wall Street Journal reports. In three cases doctors experienced problems removing the wire used to hold the stent in place. Cardiologists at the hospital have since gone back to using …

New evidence appears to show that there may be long-term risk of blood clots associated with drug coated stents. Researchers presented evidence which shows "a small but real increase in clots" in the 18 months to three years after implantation. The data covers the two leading brands of drug coated stents, Johnson & Johnson's Cypher and Boston Scientific's Taxus. Some experts, like the Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Eric Topol, said the news is a red flag and argue that problem is one …

Boston Scientific warned this morning that sales of its formerly best-selling Taxus stent are likely to fall below expectations, and the company admitted it is unlikely to match its earnings estimates for the third quarter. The news follows directly on the heels of a series of reports on the effectiveness of leading stent brands delivered at this week's meeting of the European Conference of Cardiology. One study, due to be published next week in the Lancet, finds that stents made …

Despite well-publicized problems, such as Guidant's defibrillator recall last month, the government is putting plans to expand a computer network intended to provide advance warning of potential problems with medical devices on hold. The FDA had proposed expanding the MedSun network, which monitors data on stents, defibrillators and pacemakers. Now officals are saying those plans will have to wait. Advocates say that isn't a particularly good idea, especially in light of recent problems. …

Patients with heart problems may be better off having coronary bypass surgery than undergoing a procedure which uses a stent to help restore the flow of blood, a new study finds. The research, released in today's New England Journal of Medicine, finds that patients who undergo bypass surgery have much higher survival rates and are far less likely to need repeat surgery than those treated with stents. However, the authors admit that a lot has changed since their data was collected …