Study on Radial Force of Helical Structure for Biodegradable Polymer Stents

Abstract

Biodegradable polymeric stents have been issued to replace the existing non-degradable metal stents due to relatively improved biocompatibility and low side effects. Fundamentally, all the stents must possess the desired mechanism strength, especially, compression or radial force to maintain the diameters of expanded vessels. Therefore, this study suggests a helical structure and focused on the relation between the lateral compression and structural factors. Unlike a cylindrical model, the radial force of the helical model is proportional to the thickness and the length to the power of one, whereas the diameter to the power of 1.6. The function obtained from these results might provide the fundamental information to design and prepare the stent for clinical applications.