Extended Study Indicates Stents Offer No Added Long-Term Benefit for Stable Coronary Artery Disease

A long-term follow-up of the COURAGE trial, published in JAMA, reveals that for patients with stable coronary artery disease, adding stents to medical therapy does not significantly reduce the long-term risk of death or heart attack. Researchers tracked participants for up to 25 years, finding similar outcomes between those receiving angioplasty plus medical treatment and those on medical therapy alone. This challenges previous assumptions about stent efficacy in this patient group.