Stents and things

Early Invasive Therapy or Conservative Management for Unstable Angina or NSTEMI?

The authors conclude that an early invasive strategy is preferable to a conservative management strategy in the treatment of patients with UA or NSTEMI; however, the absolute difference between strategies in long-term mortality was not large. Forty-three people would need to be treated with an early invasive strategy to prevent one death at two to five years (i.e., number needed to treat [NNT] = 43), and a comparable number of patients will experience bleeding or procedure-related myocardial infarction (number needed to harm [NNH] = 36 and 35, respectively). However, there was a clear benefit with early invasive treatment in preventing rehospitalization during the first year (NNT = 10).