As this study from Solucient shows the take off in the use of drug-eluting stents has been very fast, even before Boston Scientific’s Taxus stent hits the market. USA today has a good general article about them too.

This puts hospitals in a real bind, as the cost of the new stents means that they’ll be losing money on their use, unless they can get an increase in DRG payments from CMS. So watch this space. But don’t forget that restenosis rates are real even for drug-eluting stents and that a recent Stanford study showed you were better off getting a by-pass over time.

UPDATE: The FDA today as expected approved the Taxus stent from Boston Scientific. The stock is up about 30% so far this year.