More Angioplasties ≠ Better Results?

This summary from work published by Beth Israel Deaconess Medial Center’s Sachs and coworkers in this month’s Journal of Vascular Surgery courtesy of the folks at Medical News/MedPageToday: By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today Published: October 10, 2011 Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD ; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) to treat vascular disease in the legs increased threefold from 1999 to 2007 and has overtaken peripheral bypass graft surgery in popularity, but whether patients have benefited from the trend remains uncertain, researchers said. Data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample program for those years indicated that inpatient mortality was slightly lower among PTA-treated patients than in those undergoing peripheral bypass graft surgery, but amputation rates were nearly double with PTA when used for critical limb ischemia, reported Teviah Sachs, MD, MPH, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues. Moreover, the average cost per procedure rose more steeply for PTA during the study period, such that by 2007, it cost more than bypass graft surgery, Sachs and colleagues reported online in the Journal of Vascular Surgery .