Challenges related to development of bioabsorbable vascular stents

Vascular stents have revolutionised the field of interventional cardiology. Once an artery has healed, however, stents are no longer thought to serve a functional role. Bioabsorbable stents would be preferred to permanent implants if they maintain arterial architecture, minimise device/host interactions, and reduce the need for long-term anticoagulation therapy. Technical challenges to develop and commercialise a successful bioabsorbable stent relate to identification of materials and stent designs capable of balancing acute and chronic mechanical properties, degradation time, and biocompatibility. Successful programs will be ones that achieve these requirements with uncompromised product deliverability, efficacy and safety. Many materials currently proposed for use in bioabsorbable stents take longer than 24 months to degrade and so may not meet these criteria. We describe here the Medtronic CardioVascular bioabsorbable program which focuses on developing a degradable stent for superficial femoral arteries that targets degradation in less than 12 months.