Confirmed To Be A Waste of Time!

After many years of constant practice, balloon

angioplasty has recently been confirmed in a

study to be a "waste of time," according to the

Straits Times. What used to be almost standard

practice has now been thrown out!

This is because patients who had had balloon

angioplasty --the stuff that doctors forceably put

inside the arteries to supposedly clear arteries of

blockages--normally experience restenosis or

re-clogging. That means the arteries that have

been "plied opened” by the once-popular technique

undergo flow difficulties once again because of new

plague being formed around the very same place

where the arteries were being "treated." These

patients include millions of heart patients who

had had heart attacks or even those who had

yet to experience a cardiovascular event.

What have been the ramifications of such a

practice? No one knows, nor can anyone estimate.

Nowadays, medical experts say that drugs and

stents (a mesh that is permanently placed in the

clogged part of the artery after balloon

angioplasty is applied) can do an equally good,

if not a better, job at opening up clogged arteries.

But will drugs and stents be later proved to have

the same or similar, if not worse, effect as balloon

angioplasty some years down the track? This

remains to be seen. My prediction has been

and still is, if I may add, negative.