During this time, patients needed to be hospitalized. The use of new medications has reduced that length of stay to less than a full day. Now, the use of new medications has reduced that length of stay to less than a full day. We are using a combination of antiplatelet drugs. Aspirin and ticlopidine have been shown to be most effective in reducing the risk of clotting from 3 - 4 percent to .8 percent.
Patients remain on aspirin therapy indefinitely.
Medication therapy has continued to improve outcomes. This drug is very expensive and stenting itself is an expensive procedure. This is particularly true of our diabetic patients who are at higher risk for complications of heart disease. Not for everyone We are strong advocates of the benefits of stenting. We use them in about 75 percent of the angioplasties we do, but if a patient has very small vessels or if their disease is very diffuse, they are not used.