Q: I want to know more about stents. How many types are there, their cost and efficacy.

A:Stents are stainless steel tube like devices which are inserted non-surgically by angiography like technique to clear blockages of heart arteries & keep them open. They are one of the biggest advances in angioplasty over the last 10 years and have made angioplasty a very safe procedure with risk factor of less than 0.5%. There are a large variety of stents, the most recent advance has been drug coated stent which have practically been able to abolish recurrence of the blockage. The stents costs approximately between Rs. 35 - 45,000 depending upon the type of stents.