A high rate of heart attacks in European patients following implantation of its Absorb GT1 bioabsorbable drug-eluting stent has prompted Abbott Laboratories to begin monitoring surgeons’ implantation techniques.
Absorb has also been implicated in reported deaths of nearly 20 U.S. patients in 2016 and 2017, according to FDA’s adverse event database. Several of those reports, which were submitted by either Abbott or a healthcare provider, mentioned stent-related blood clots (stent thromboses) as a possible contributing factor. A few occurred within a day or two of discharge from the hospital.
