U of PA's Stent Study

Drug-eluting stents may have added as much as $1.57 billion to healthcare costs in the U.S. since they hit the market here in 2003, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania.

The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, tracked data from more than 2,000 Medicare patients between 2002 and 2006, hoping to gauge the impact of new medical technology on health care costs. The team sought to account both for costs directly related to the stenting procedure and for indirect costs from the treatment.

"It is time to clearly define what the value of this extraordinary investment has been in terms of patient benefits and study the harms and determine if we are getting good value for this outlay," AIM editor Dr. Rita Redberg wrote, calling the $1.57 billion figure "staggering."

The study did not factor in the cost of anti-clotting drug often prescribed following stenting procedures, according to the news service.