Stents ‘may do nothing to relieve angina pain’

A COMMON surgical procedure to treat angina may be a waste of time, a study suggests.

Thousands of patients in Britain every year undergo operations to insert stents – small metal tubes – that are used to widen arteries.

Doctors widely believe it ‘unquestionably improves’ angina, which causes chest pain following exercise because of restricted blood flow to the heart. But the procedure, which can damage blood vessels, has been found to have no significant benefit for quality of life.

Researchers at Imperial College London looked at 200 patients who either received a heart stent or a sham procedure. When the effect on their ability to exercise was examined, the stent group showed little difference. Lead author Dr Rasha Al-Lamee said stents were also no better at tackling the symptoms of angina than drug treatments.

The results, published in the Lancet, add to growing evidence that some procedures work because of a ‘placebo effect’. Patients were urged not to shun stent procedures altogether, however.