When it comes to stenting for coronary artery disease, it is equated by many people with sending themselves to the guillotine. Patients often have a hard time at the clinic: Doctor, do I need a stent in my case? I heard that after stenting, I have to take medication for the rest of my life? All these signs point to one thing: the general public lacks sufficient knowledge about stents. Is stenting a banned technology abroad? Some people say that cardiac stents are like over-the-top stars in the field of medical technology, which were once popular but are now banned abroad. There are also some misleading data widely circulated on the Internet, such as in 1977, German experts did the first cardiac stent surgery; the United States has more than 1 million cardiac stent surgeries every year; the mortality rate of patients with acute heart attack without stents is about 15%. I would like to explain the above issues: first, the invention of cardiac stent is less than 40 years ago; second, according to China’s data in 2012, the volume of cardiac stent surgery in the United States was 400,000 cases; third, the installation of cardiac stents can reduce the mortality rate of acute heart attack to 3% -6%. In addition, according to a 2013 China News report, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush Jr, 67, was discharged from a Dallas, Texas, hospital after undergoing cardiac artery stenting surgery and is recovering well. The rumor that Bush Jr, a fitness enthusiast at the time, underwent cardiovascular surgery surprised many, but that’s not what’s being delved into here. So the question is, former U.S. presidents have used cardiac stents to treat their own hearts, would it be a banned technology abroad? Why is cardiac stents said to be a profitable industry? There is another question that is inevitable when it comes to cardiac stents: profiteering. Most people think that the cost of a stent is just a few hundred dollars, and the cost to the patient is tens of thousands of dollars, so it’s really a profiteering industry. But is a heart stent just a small frame? Here is the cost of a stent: Cost 1: the heart keeps contracting and diastole, and blood vessels keep beating, which requires that the stent put into the blood vessels should have a certain degree of hardness to hold the blood vessels open, but also a certain degree of toughness to resist the contraction of the coronary arteries, so the stent’s material is a high-cost, high-technology metal alloy. Cost 2: To solve the problem of restenosis and thrombosis after stent implantation, most of the new generation stents come with drug coatings or polymers that can evenly coat the stent with drugs and release them slowly for months, a technology that also increases the cost. Drug-eluting stents have been used domestically for 10 years. There is also a biodegradable bio-stent that disappears on its own after 2 years of implantation, and the results of this research will be widely introduced to the market within a year or two. Cost 3: The cost of medical devices and drugs is not limited to the so-called cost price, but also includes the cost of decades of research and development prior to production as well as the cost of the stage of obtaining approval for marketing after passing the large-scale clinical trials, which is very high. Finally, there are also the costs of doctors’ skills, hospital equipment and so on. Is there a problem with stent abuse? Usually, coronary artery stenosis of more than 30-70% is moderate stenosis, which needs to be combined with examination to decide whether to intervene or medication; while stenosis of more than 70% is severe stenosis, which is poorly treated by medication and is recommended to be intervened. What are the post-stenting problems that patients are concerned about? With the popularization of cardiac stenting in China, the mortality rate of patients with acute myocardial infarction has been reduced from 20%-30% to less than 7% at present, and many coronary heart disease patients have benefited from choosing this treatment technology. Here are some answers to some of the post-procedure questions that patients are more concerned about: Will the stent fall off? There is a risk that the stent will fall out during placement, mainly due to the curvature and calcification of the blood vessels. Once the stent is successfully placed in the body, it will not fall out again, not even with activity, or during external cardiac compressions or defibrillation. Will the body feel or reject the stent? A stent placed in an artery is usually not felt. In addition, no significant rejection of the stent by the body has been detected. Will my heart still hurt after the stent is placed? It is possible that a new blockage may develop in the area that has been treated or elsewhere in the artery. Therefore, a coronary angiogram should be repeated within a year after the procedure, with or without symptoms, for early detection and prompt treatment of the stenosis. Having said that, stenting remains a controversial topic. Stent itself is beneficial to the human body, but overused, it is a double-edged sword. Together with the relatively prominent doctor-patient conflict relationship in China and the lack of sufficient trust between doctors and patients, the treatment process has generated many unnecessary troubles. It is recommended that patients usually learn more about the relevant knowledge, when facing the issue of stents will be more comfortable.