Thanks to its variety of forms, the stent is used in various areas of medicine. In addition to acute treatment, preventive medicine also benefits from the vascular stent.
What is a stent?
In science, a stent is a tube-shaped implant (a non-natural material placed in the body) made of plastic or metal. In science, a stent is a tubular implant (a non-natural material placed in the body) that is made of plastic or metal. Such a stent is used in hollow organs or vessels for stabilization purposes, among others. The origin of the term stent, which translates into German as vessel support, has not been conclusively clarified – the medical term may possibly refer to the English word ‘stenting’ (‘to strengthen’ or ‘to stiffen’). Alternatively, however, the name of the stent may go back to the British dentist Charles Stent (19th century), who invented a material from which vascular supports are sometimes made.
Shapes, types, and styles
Due to different purposes of a stent, a wide variety of types and shapes of the medical vascular stent exist. For example, in addition to the simple metal stent (also known as bare metal stent), which is primarily inserted into blood vessels, a drug-eluting stent is also used in practice. Such a stent delivers controlled amounts of individually required active substances to the organism. A currently developed alternative to a metal stent is the so-called bioresorbable stent: The vascular support is degraded by the organism after a certain period of time. The stent, also known as a ‘healing stent’, is a vascular support that is provided with antibodies – in the case of mesh-like stents, this results in a faster superimposition of the vascular support with the body’s own tissue. Last but not least, in cases of medical necessity, the radioactive stent is also used; the radioactivity here is intended to prevent the re-narrowing of dilated cavities.
Structure and mode of operation
The structure and functioning of a stent depend, among other things, on its nature. Many stents resemble a tube in the form of a lattice in their structure. With their stability, they line vessels or hollow organs, preventing tissue constriction in the area of the implant. In various cases, a stent is placed in the vessel requiring treatment with the help of a so-called balloon catheter – a corresponding catheter is able to dilate narrowed vessels and thus allow the insertion of the stent. A stent in lattice form is usually inserted in a slender design into a hollow tissue to be supported, where the vascular support now opens and in this way adapts to the corresponding vessel shape. A drug-eluting stent is designed to reduce the risk of tissue proliferation through the interstices of the stent, thus creating a bottleneck. Most such agents released through a stent therefore inhibit local tissue growth. The function of a stent made of bioresorbable material is to support vessels, which is only necessary for a certain period of time. The therapeutic goal here is independent vascular stability after the stent has been removed.
Medical and health benefits
Just as varied as the forms and types of stent are their medical benefits. For example, the simple metal stent and the drug-eluting vascular stent are used primarily for cardiovascular disease and after a suffered heart attack, respectively. After dilatation of a narrowed blood vessel, the stent takes over the task of preventing a new narrowing. Thus, the stent has a significant preventive benefit. In addition to its function as a support in blood vessels, the stent also serves various forms of cancer treatment; for example, it is possible for malignant tumors (circumferential proliferation of tissue) to cause constrictions in hollow organs such as the trachea or esophagus, as well as in the bile ducts. After medical repair of the resulting bottlenecks, the stent also makes it possible to prevent new growths in the affected hollow organ.For example, after injury-related vasoconstriction, the bioresorbable stent can cause the supported vessel to resume its independent mobility after a certain period of healing and thus be strengthened. In addition, the psychological benefit of this form of stent can be seen in its higher acceptance by patients.
