Written by: Noelle A. Koo (11th grade / Ashburn, VA USA)
Research Question: How can medicine be used to treat heart disease, instead of an invasive surgery?
Summary: A new study conducted showed data that supported that fact that in some cases, surgeries were not much better than treatments with medical therapy (for heart disease patients whose cases are not urgent). Medical therapy has shown to reduce the rates of heart attacks and deaths in patients the same as invasive surgery. However, ischemic heart patients cannot simply just take the medication once, or even monthly. They must imbed medical therapy and medical treatments into their daily plans. For some patients, this is a good alternative to surgery, but to others, who are less responsible, this can be detrimental to their healths. It was found that patients preferred a long life, but also a pain-free one that invasive surgery could not satisfy. There are many risks in surgery, but there is a set percentage of survival that has been statistically proven. Because of this, patients tend to be more inclined to submit to have surgery when they realize that the risks are not very high. On the other hand, there have been trials with using only medicine to help those with heart diseases, but there is no statistically proven value that can support this finding at the moment. This finding that medical therapy may be able to replace some surgeries, however, can be used to help heart disease patients receive a minimally invasive procedure that will enable their bodies to go through less of a toll and potentially leave them pain free.
Interest: I find it quite interesting that medicine alone could potentially play the same role in maintaining or bettering a patient's health, as surgery does for some heart disease patients. If I was a heart disease patient, the option of being able to decide between a surgery and medicine would bring me much comfort and I would most likely prefer taking medicine over having to undergo a potentially invasive procedure if the medicine was dependable and had shown past evidence of having the same effects as an invasive surgery would.
Article Link: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/medications-alone-work-well-surgery-some-heart-disease-patients
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