A Call for Randomized Controlled Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty

A rapidly evolving technology, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, is increasingly favored over bypass surgery for treating some types of coronary stenosis because of its less traumatic invasion, better recovery response, and lower initial cost. However, substantially higher failure rates in initial procedures offset PTCA's savings to an unknown extent and cloud analysis of its overall impact. Lack of randomized clinical data...