When doctors discover a significant blockage in one of the heart's arteries, many people assume that a stent is the obvious next step. While this is often true during a heart attack or other acute coronary emergencies, the decision is not always as straightforward for people with stable coronary artery disease. For years, coronary stenting, also known as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), has been widely used to relieve chest pain caused by narrowed arteries. The common belief has been simple: restoring blood flow should reduce symptoms and improve a patient's ability to exercise. But is opening a blocked artery always enough to make patients feel better? This question became the focus of one of the most influential studies in interventional cardiology—the ORBITA trial, published in The Lancet in 2017. The study challenged long-held assumptions and changed how doctors think about treating stable angina. Question that Challenged Conventional Practice: Why the O...