Heart Bypass Vs. Heart Stent

Choosing between the two comes down to several things:

• doctor’s order
• insurance
• patient decision

Sometimes the blockage is minor and all that is needed is a heart stent. But now there is a new reason to go for the more evasive heart bypass surgery; in the long run the bypass has more potential to have long term effects on lowering the changes of a life threatening heart attack.

According to a new study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the chances of dying within 18 months of the bypass were 25% lower than those who had the heart stent operation. Estimated heart attacks and future need of another operation also favored the bypass operation over the heart stent.

There are medical reasons in which the heart stent should be considered over the bypass, for instance if a patient would not survive being placed under anesthesia for too long a heart stent would be safer. If the stent repairs the hear enough, a patient would then stand a better chance of surviving the bypass.

In the end it really comes down to doctor preference, the individual patient and that patient’s record. It really does not matter what all the medical studies prove if the patient is not a candidate for the more dangerous bypass operation.

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