Good hardware - keeping things together for years (one hopes)

Photo from A.M.D. via Flickr

I'm a hardware fan. Hammers, chisels, screwdrivers - you name it. Good hardware will last a lifetime. And now, there's an interesting study about people hardware - in this case, stents that are devoted to stroke prevention.

Like I said, good hardware can last a long time. So this research indicates that a decade later, stents durable for stroke prevention:

"... at 10 years patients who underwent stenting or endarterectomy to treat severe carotid stenosis were no more likely to have a stroke than same age healthy patients
.
Those findings emerged from the long term follow-up of study of CREST, initial results of which were reported in 2010 and which paved the way for FDA approval of Abbott Vascular's Acculink carotid stent. Thomas G. Brott, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville reported the 10-year results at the International Stroke Conference here; the results were simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

I chose some different hardware almost nine years ago, with a device to close the hole between my two upper heart chambers. Sort of the opposite of a stent. The stent keeps something open. Mine was designed to plug something closed. Similar material, different purpose. So 10 years as mentioned in this research? I'm hoping for several times that.