Prerna Uppal, New Delhi: Drug-coated stents are back in the news and the news is confusing.

While a study last year found that drug-coated stents might cause fatal blood clots in cardiac patients in the long run, a smaller study last week found that patients with drug-coated stents ran exactly the same risks as those with regular stents.

But now there's a new study of 2,300 patients in 14 countries, that finds patients with drug-coated stents are nearly five times more likely to die in up to two years than those with bare metal stents.

"The whole debate is on the basis of either this or that. But what people tend to forget is that both have their own indications. Drug-coated stents can be used in certain cases while metal stents can be used for other cases. In some cases I would advice not to use stents at all," says Cardiologist, Apollo Hospital, Dr Ravi Kasliwal.

So what exactly does a stent do? It's used to prop open an artery, and helps improve blood flow to the heart.

For 63-year-old Siddharth Goyal, who suffered a heart attack last month, the fact that he has a drug-coated stent implanted does not worry him.

"I still work 14 hours a day. My food habits have altered but everything else is the same," says he.

In fact, Siddharth's doctors preferred to implant a drug-coated stent, because he is diabetic.

"Drug coated stents can be used in cases like small arteries, for diabetics, or people with proximal blockages. Metal stents can be used in cases of larger arteries, blocks far away from the arteries and in some cases in bypass grafts," explains Dr Kasliwal.

While some patients with drug-coated stents run the risk of developing blood clots or thrombosis, doctors say that both stents carry risks, and that doctors need to take a call, patient by patient.