Prince of Wales Hospital adopts breakthrough heart surgery drug
Seventy heart patients at Prince of Wales Hospital are among the first recipients of a medical procedure that promises to keep unclogged arteries healthy.
A drug, paclitaxel, is coated around a stent, a wire mesh tube which is implanted into a narrowed artery during an angioplasty - a procedure to repair a blood vessel or unblock an artery.
The drug is then released gradually.
Yu Cheuk-man, professor in cardiology at the Chinese University, said the drug-coated stent was 'a major breakthrough' because it drastically cut the chance of a repeat angioplasty or riskier surgical intervention for heart patients.
'This new drug-coated stent has the advantage of reducing the narrowing of the coronary arteries. Within the first six months of implanting a traditional stent, there is a 26.6 per cent chance of a re-narrowing of the arteries.
Professor Yu said a study, published in January in the New England Journal of Medicine, involving 1,000 heart patients in the United States, showed the drug-coated stent reduced the chance of a re-narrowing to less than 8 per cent.
The results were even 'more dramatic' for diabetic patients with heart disease, with re-narrowing cut from about 43 per cent to 7 per cent.
'With less [re-narrowing], there is less chance of a repeat angioplasty or the chance of having to go through bypass surgery,' he said.
Professor Yu said at least 70 Prince of Wales Hospital patients over the past six months had been implanted with the new stents.
The patients pay for the cost of the stent, which can run to thousands of dollars.
US manufacturer Boston Scientific earlier this month said the stent would cost US$2,950.
The professor said he was not sure how much the Hospital Authority was charging patients.
Norman Chan Nor, honorary associate professor at Chinese University, said the method could revolutionise treatment of diabetic patients with co-existing heart disease.
'But it is too early to say whether it can last for long as the follow-up duration in the United States study was very limited. So far there have not been any complications,' said Professor Chan, who is clinical director of Qualigenics Diabetes Centre.
Paclitaxel, an old drug for ovarian cancer, works by stopping the cancerous cells from replicating. For heart patients, it works on smooth muscle cells of the heart, the doctors said.
