Any other people under 40 had a heart attack/drug eluting stents?

Question

i had a heart attack 2 months ago, have 3 drug eluding stents in my right coronary artery and i am a nervous wreck because of all the negitive stuff i have heard about them. Any one out there in the same boat? i am 38 years old from Vancouver Canada.

Answer 1

Well, I don't have any stents, but I have seen a lot of people who do, including some as young as yourself. I don't know what you've been reading, but as long as you keep taking your aspirin and plavix, the chances of anything going wrong with your stents in the short term are very small (and even in the long term). Drug eluting stents are less likely to close than their non-eluting counterparts, and though they cannot save you from having heart disease in the future, most people who have problems after stents have problems in the areas not stented, not in the stents themselves.

Answer 2

What negative stuff have you heard???! I can't imagine what you are talking about. Stents keep our arteries open and that is a good thing. A drug eluting stent is coated with or emits a medication to prevent the stent from blocking off again (restenosis). That's a better guarantee than the other arteries in your heart that don't have a stent in them. They could block off at any time.
Is restenosis what you are worried about, because regular stents have a 25-30% chance of restenosing and drug eluting stents only have a 5-7% chance of restenosing. I think you're in a pretty good boat. Your cardiologists other options for fixing your blockage were balloon angioplasty (which is using a balloon to squish the blockage up against the walls of your artery), zapping the blockage with a laser or using a regular, non-medicated stent to open your artery. While all of these are effective options, the only option that actually helps to prevent the formation of another blockage is a drug eluting stent. You really recieved the best treatment and it's a shame that you are viewing this in a negative way.
Try going to www.ptca.org and learning more about stents and maybe you will feel more comfortable.

Answer 3

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