Materials for metallic stents.

Stents are expandable tubes of metallic mesh that were developed to address the negative sequelae of balloon angioplasty and are currently used in cardiovascular medicine. In this review, the use of particular metals to make stents is discussed from the viewpoint of materials engineering. The properties and characteristics of metals used for stents, such as stainless steels, nickel-titanium alloys, tantalum, cobalt-chromium alloys, and magnesium alloys, are explained. In addition, problems and disadvantages related to metallic stents and their possible solutions are given.