Does PCI improve survival rates in patients with SIHD?
No study to date has demonstrated that PCI in patients with SIHD improves survival rates. Meta-analyses have failed to show that the introduction of bare-metal stents (BMS) confers a survival advantage over balloon angioplasty or that the use of drug-eluting stents (DES) confers a survival advantage over BMS. Evaluation of 61 trials of PCI conducted over several decades shows that despite improvements in PCI technology and pharmacotherapy, PCI has not been demonstrated to reduce the risk of death or MI in patients without recent ACS.