Immediate complete revascularization is not inferior to staged procedure for treating multi-vessel disease

In patients with multi-vessel heart disease who have had a heart attack, immediate treatment with stents in all diseased arteries was found to be as safe and effective at one year of follow-up as staged treatment, according to findings from the first large, randomized trial to address this question that is being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together With the World Congress of Cardiology. In staged treatment, the blocked artery that caused the heart attack is treated with a stent immediately and other partially blocked arteries are treated in a second procedure up to six weeks later.