Stent design back in the picture: an engineering perspective on longitudinal stent compression

© Europa Edition 2011. All rights reserved. Current drug-eluting stents lead to excellent long-term clinical outcomes, with small differences between the most popular products1. This indicates a dominant impact of the drug, and it is therefore not surprising that the design of the stent platforms received less attention during the last few years. Of course, there are a few exceptions here, like the bioabsorbable stents, where the use of unconventional materials requires innovative stent designs, or the dedicated bifurcation stents, designed to fit the complex bifurcation anatomy.