Thrombectomy devices have been shown, by several recent trials, to help improve your wellbeing in the case of ischemic stroke, but financial coverage for this device hangs in the balance. This is according to an editorial in the journal Stroke, which argues that certain patients should be reimbursed for the use of the device if IV therapy should not be used because it may be harmful to their wellness.
On behalf of the Interventional Management of Stroke (IMS) III executive committee, Joseph P. Broderick, MD, and Thomas A. Tomsick, MD, wrote, ‘Insurance companies in the US are currently considering whether the data from [the IMS III and SYNTHESIS trials] justify withdrawal of reimbursement for thrombectomy devices for all ischemic stroke patients, including those patients who arrive within the tPA treatment window but who are ineligible for IV tPA.’
The concern is that the original large trials didn’t show that the devices are any better than tPA for endovascular therapy, but smaller studies have since been done with many new-generation thrombectomy devices and have shown good results. The writers assert that if you were to arrive within the 4.5 hour window when IV tPA is beneficial, but have contraindications for IV therapy (meaning that you have a condition or factor that serves as a reason to withhold the medical treatment) the use of thrombectomy devices for you should be reimbursed.
However, another heart health device, this time designed to heal and repair arteries, was deemed to be just as beneficial as pre-existing treatments. This is according to German researchers, who found that a novel stent which promotes early neointimal stent strut coverage, and reduces late lumen loss, restenosis, and the need for reintervention, was found to be non-inferior to a contemporary drug-eluting stent.
Michael Haude, MD, of the Medical Clinic I, Lukaskrankenhaus in Neuss, Germany, and colleagues wrote in the April issue of JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions, that their ‘results are in line with the expected capture of circulating endothelial progenitor cells by the CD34 antibody [on the Combo stent], creating a fast and complete layer of cells leading to the covering of the stent struts’.
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