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Angioplasty seen safe for most 90-year-olds
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters Health) - Angioplasty to remove blockages in the coronary arteries appears to benefit most very elderly patients in their 90s. In about seven out of ten such cases, the patient survives at least one year after the procedure, according to a Spanish study presented here at the Argentine Congress of Cardiology.
"As life expectancy increases, advanced age should not be a contraindication (to coronary procedures)," said Dr. Federico Magri of the Hospital Clinico San Carlos in Madrid.
Researchers studied a series of 41 patients ranging in age from 90 to 98 who underwent emergency or elective angioplasty to relieve acute or chronic coronary disease. Two-thirds of patients suffered from blockages in more than one coronary artery.
Doctors treated 47 arteries and implanted stents in 35 patients. Testing showed successful artery clearance was achieved in 38 cases (93 percent).
Within 30 days of the intervention, 24 percent of the patients died, most often those who had had a heart attack.
However, once through the immediate post-treatment phase, additional deaths were infrequent. At 1-year follow-up, 68 percent of patients were alive.
According to Magri and colleagues, their report is one of the longest studies of the outcome of coronary angioplasty in patients older than 90 years old.
Reuters Health