Minneapolis Heart Institute part of trial for dissolving stent

[Star Tribune, May 09, 2013] Last week, Dr. Nicholas Burke of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation implanted a stent into the coronary artery of a patient to help hold open a previously blocked blood vessel. Nothing super extraordinary there — cardiologists have been using tiny metal stents for a decade.

The difference is that the stent wasn’t made of metal and, in about two years, it will have dissolved and disappeared.

Burke is one of the first cardiologists — and the heart institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, part of Allina Health, is among the first centers — in the country to implant Absorb, a drug-coated stent that the body absorbs, as part of the Absorb III trial. Read more at startribune.com.