AHA: Elective PCI Still Not for Just Any Hospital
By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer,
Reviewed by
November 15, 2011
Review
ORLANDO -- Centers considering elective stenting and angiography without on-site cardiac surgery after the positive results reported with it here at the American Heart Association meeting need to proceed thoughtfully, according to this exclusive InFocus report.
The safety of that approach found support in the CPORT-E trial, explains Timothy Gardner, MD, a cardiovascular surgeon and director of the heart program at the Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del.
The study found no mortality or adverse event disadvantage to non-primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) at hospitals without on-site cardiac surgery capabilities compared with ones that did.
But those results were from a study done among selected patients and at experienced centers with formal programs in place.
To follow in their footsteps, community hospitals need a good relationship with a referral hospital to take any cases that end up needing emergency surgery, says Gardner, a past president of the AHA.
High volume may be less critical than previously thought, but credentials and high standards for the PCI team should be nonnegotiable, he told MedPage Today Senior Staff Writer Crystal Phend.
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