HealthBreak | Absorb Stent
Stents have been used to treat coronary artery blockages, like heart attacks, since 1994. "There has always been this dream that you place a stent and it does what it's supposed to do - to form a 'scaffold' that holds a blood vessel open," explains Tod Maddux, MD FACC, an Interventional Cardiologist and director of the Cardiac Cath Lab at the International Heart Institute of Montana. "We've come to realize that we don't need that scaffold forever." "The vessel eventually remodels and supports itself over time, so patients have been left with metal stents in their coronary arteries for their entire life," Dr. Maddux continues, "Wouldn't it be great if you could place a stent, have that scaffold in place, open up that blood vessel and over time, it disappears, leaving behind a normal blood vessel that can react to changes in blood pressure and blood flow, and return back to a normal functioning blood vessel?" That dream is the Absorb Stent, and the Missoula heart institute is one of the first in the United States to offer the technology. "We're particularly excited to have been involved in the original clinical research trials, so it's not new to us," says Dr. Maddux. "But it's very exciting to see this new stent is available to everybody." To find out more, visit http://ihimontana.org
