Animated video explaining how coronary angioplasty with stent insertion is performed. Also called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), it is the procedure of choice for most cases of heart attack.

Coronary artery bypass grafting is performed for severe disease as in involvement of all 3 coronary vessels or left main coronary artery.

The television medical drama Grey’s Anatomy apparently has more to offer than Patrick Dempsey’s rakish smile and a good cry. A new survey reports watching the show also may increase a viewer’s health smarts.

There is a lot of inaccurate information on television. According to this survey people remember health information imparted on TV, probably more so than given to them in their doctor’s office. Using the television media responsibly and effectively may increase public awareness of diseases and encourage healthy behavior.

The same goes for print media. Influential magazines should research medical articles before jumping to an opinion. The most recent example is an article in Time Magazine - Gastric bypass surgery less helpful for diabetics. A very catchy but misleading title. To the writer’s credit she did include this conversation with Dr. Hamdy:

I believe that the benefits of gastric bypass surgery outweigh any risk that a patient will have,” says Hamdy. “If you look at the mortality in relation to obesity itself, especially if it occurs with diabetics, that is much, much higher than the risk of mortality from the surgery.

… but it is included at the end of the article.

In my opinion the title should have been more appropriately worded as it gives an impression that gastric bypass surgery may not help in diabetes.

A lot of furore is ongoing on controlling health blogs and their content. However, the print media has a greater reach and authority than most blogs in influencing health related decisions for patients. Therefore they should carry equal if not greater social responsibility than health blogs.

Reference: USA Today, Time, ACP Internist Blog

What is better: Coronary artery bypass surgery OR Angioplasty with stent? Another article (SYNTAX Study), another viewpoint!!

For heart patients with clogged arteries, the choice between bypass surgery or an angioplasty may come down to one question: How many procedures would you like to have?
In research presented Monday at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Munich, experts concluded that while bypass surgery and angioplasty offer comparable results, patients who have angioplasties are twice as likely to require another procedure within a year.

Also note:

After one year, researchers found that the death rate among the two groups was virtually the same: 7.7 percent among surgery patients and 7.6 percent among angioplasty patients.

In patients who had an angioplasty, nearly 14 percent needed another procedure after a year, compared with about 6 percent of surgery patients.

But patients who had surgery had about a 2 percent stroke risk versus nearly zero risk for patients who had an angioplasty. Doctors said that any surgery had an inherent stroke risk, compared with an angioplasty.

The study was also underpowered to provide definite results.

Reference: European Society of Cardiology, Associated Press