Coronary-Stenting Abuse

A recent article highlights high-profile cases of alleged coronary-stenting overuse. It’s just the tip of the iceberg.

"When stents are used to restore blood flow in heart-attack patients, few dispute they are beneficial," writes Peter Waldman, David Armstrong, and Sydney P Freedberg  in Bloomberg BusinessWeek .  But heart attacks account for only about half of stenting procedures.

Among the other half —elective-surgery patients in stable condition—overuse, death, injury, and fraud have accompanied the devices use. The article cites thousands of pages of court documents and regulatory filings, interviews with 37 cardiologists and 33 heart patients or their survivors, and more than a dozen medical studies.

As per Texas Medical Board, Dr Samuel DeMaio is said to have implanted 21 coronary stents in one patient over an eight-month period. The patient's later death was related to the placement of unneeded stents.

Dr John McLean of Salisbury, MD, was convicted of billing for unwarranted stenting. He argued that inappropriate usage is widespread, and [he] was prosecuted for behavior that’s the industry norm.

Baltimore cardiologist Dr Mark Midei, license was revoked in 2011 when the Maryland Board of Physicians found he falsified records to justify unwarranted stents. The hospital where Midei worked, St Joseph Medical Center in Towson, MD, paid the government $22 million without admitting liability as a part of settlement.

Apart five other hospitals settled with the Justice Department over allegations that they paid illegal kickbacks to doctors for patient referrals to their cath labs. [Medscape Cardiology]