Smart stent: A new concept for the treatment of central airway obstructions

Abstract

Stenting has been in practice for the last few decades in the palliative management of both benign and malignant (intrinsic and extrinsic) obstructions of the central airways (i.e. trachea and mainstem bronchi). The symptoms of central airway obstructions are late findings and these symptoms often overlap with those found in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Therefore, its prognosis is poor and the patients with malignancy are often misdiagnosed. Almost all the commercial airway stents are normally preloaded into a significantly small diameter dedicated delivery system and deployed mostly under bronchoscopic guidance. This research work is aimed to use Auxetic (rotatingsquares) pattern for the production of a novel Auxetic airway stent to maintain the luminal patency of the central airways in an effective way. This study also endeavoured to manufacture a significantly small diameter Auxetic airway stent. In order to easily deploy the Auxetic stent orally using a balloon catheter, and hence it also prevents the need of an expensive dedicated delivery system.