Study: 10% of deaths after PCI preventable

Editor's Note

New data show 10% of deaths from percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a common and minimally invasive procedure to unclog arteries, are preventable. The study appeared in PLOS ONE on March 27.

PCI is one of the most common surgical procedures. More than 500,000 Americans undergo the procedure each year, which includes both angioplasty and stenting.PCI carries a small risk of death (about 1-2%) and according to the latest research from University of Michigan Medicine, about 10% of all deaths following PCI are potentially preventable. 

For the study, the team looked at deaths after PCI from 39 Michigan hospitals between 2012 and 2014. They found that procedural complications contributed to 20% of the nearly 1,200 deaths reported during the study period. More than a quarter of the patients who died were considered low risk. Among the preventable deaths, angioplasty and stenting could be avoided nearly one third of the time.

The researchers point out that while the study can help prevent avoidable deaths, the findings also highlight a dramatic, positive shift from the 1990s, when most of deaths after PCI could be traced to procedural complications.