Drug Eluting Stent Litigation



Recent news reports indicate that some coronary stents which are coated with drugs to prevent cells from growing on them, may promote blood clots which can lead to a heart attack.

                               

A stent is a wire mesh cylinder that is placed in an artery to open a portion of the artery  that has been blocked by plaque.  The first stents used to open clogged arteries were uncoated wire which allowed cells to form and grow on them.  The old wire stents had to be replaced after a new blockage occurred.  Newer stents however, are coated with a drug that prevents plaque cells form growing on them.  While the coating may prevent plaques cells from growing on the stent, the newer stents may also allow blood clots to form more easily.  A blood clot in your artery can lead to a heart attack.  These coated stents slowly release, or elute, cell growth inhibitors and are known as Drug Eluting Stents (DES).

Doctors implant drug eluting stents in about a million Americans a year to treat coronary artery disease. They generate some $5 billion a year in sales for the two companies that make them (Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific).  By one estimate the devices kill 2,000 Americans a year — and no one knows what the long-term danger will be.

Drs. Sanjay Kaul and George Diamond from Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, who published an article the Web site of the American College of Cardiology, estimate that deaths from the new devices exceed 2,000 a year. Studies from Europe regard the danger to be many times higher. Because the devices are so new no one knows how long the hazard persists.  Sufficient testing of the newer stents may not have been conducted prior to the drug companies releasing them onto the market.

It is estimated that as many as 4 million patients already have a DES inserted in their heart and/or coronary arteries. The devices cannot be removed safely or easily. One preventive measure is to keep patients on the anti-blood-clotting medications for months or even indefinitely. But anti-blood-clotting medicines can cause severe bleeding, including a type of deadly stroke, and it costs more than $1,200 a year.

The lawyers of Lewis & Roberts are actively investigating claims by those that have had heart attacks after the insertion of drug eluting stents and/or have had to undergo additional surgical procedures related to these stents.

If you or a loved one have had a drug eluting cardiac stent inserted and have suffered side effects, please use our contact page to reach us for a free consultation.