Migration of the AVE Micro coronary stent.

The AVE Micro coronary stent is a balloon-expandable stent with a design that is different from the commonly used slotted tubular or coil stents. The stent delivery system is low in profile and very trackable so that it can negotiate tortuous vessels to reach distal lesions. It also can pass through proximally deployed stents easily. Its moderate radioopacity allows precise stent placement. However, as illustrated in the three case reports presented here, the stent struts did not seem to be firmly embedded into the arterial wall after initial deployment, so that stent migration occurred during subsequent passage of a balloon into the stent for poststenting high pressure balloon dilatation. This new phenomenon of stent migration has not been reported previously with other stents.