• About stent
• Self-retention skills

What is stent? (About stent)

September 16, 1997, Andreas Gruentzig at Zurich University Hospital in Switzerland opened a new history of cardiac interventions by succeeding surgery to widen the blood vessels, for the first time using a balloon, to patients suffering from angina pectoris (very much narrowed coronary artery disease without completely blocked blood vessels).
(Figure 1)

Before stent implantation, Balloon angioplasty, widening the narrowed blood vessel by a balloon to improve the flow of blood, was much preferred for patients with clogged blood vessels rather than opening the chest that connects directly to clogged blood vessels. But the occurrence of restenosis, re-narrowing of blood vessels after surgery, was a problem (Figure 2).

To reduce the restenosis caused by balloon angioplasty, we Inserted the stent into the narrowed blood vessel by a balloon to expand and hold the blood vessel, which improved the flow of blood. (Figure 3).

And now, the drug eluting stent has been developed to prevent the stent restenosis. This is a stent to which a drug, such as immunosuppressive agent, is applied and eluted. Currently, a number of ways, such as making the biodegradable stent made of a metal or polymer which slowly dissolves, are being studied.

Currently, Korea Institute for Cardiovascular Stent has developed the General Metal stentwhich meets US FDA standards and is better than stent that is commercialized and used for patient (Figure 5). And based on this research achievements, it is spurring to develop a drug eluting stent. We are sure that the stent will be shortly commercialized and replace imported stent, and therefore we study hard and work on it.