An overview of superelastic stent design

The purpose of this paper is to contrast the performance of self-expanding and balloon-expandable stents. While both approaches to stenting have proven to be successful in treating a wide range of vascular disease, there are significant differences in the philosophy behind and properties of the two types of stents. Many of these differences, such as strength, stiffness (or compliance), recoil, dynamic scaffolding, vessel conformity and fatigue resistance will be highlighted by studying the mechanics of the stent alone, and then of a stent within a vessel. These differences can be summarised by observing that self-expanding stents provide more anatomically-correct scaffolding, while balloon-expandable stents provide rigid and uncompromising reinforcement. Other differences, such as corrosion resistance, placement accuracy and visibility, will also be briefly summarised.