A prominent cardiologist is calling for a stop to left atrial appendage closure procedures using Boston Scientific‘s (NYSE:BSX) Watchman device, claiming the procedures, which seek to reduce stroke in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, result in the opposite.
Dr. John Mandrola argues that randomized, controlled trials of the Watchman, designed for LAA closure, showed the device failed to reduce ischemic stroke, despite being designed for just that purpose.
“Yet we look away; or we let advocates distract us with complicated statistics,” Dr. Mandrola wrote in an article on Medscape.
