Peripheral artery disease (PAD) patients who receive balloons and stents coated with the drug paclitaxel may have a higher risk of death or lower-leg amputation following surgery, a study published in the February issue of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology reports.
The study was conducted by Konstaninos Katsanos, a researcher at Patras University Hospital in Rion, Greece. Katsanos also conducted a 2018 meta-analysis that marked the first time paclitaxel was publicly linked to an increased mortality risk in PAD patients. Further research into the question has been mixed, with some studies finding a more modest connection while real-world data didn’t seem to show a relationship