Improving the mechanical properties of braided shape memory polymer stents by heat setting

The aging population is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century and so is the subsequent increase in patients with cardiovascular diseases. The state-of-the-art treatment for cardiovascular stenosis is an angioplasty in combination with stenting of the affected artery. Stents can be either laser cut out of a tube or an interwoven such as a braided structure. Furthermore, there are two groups of stents regarding their expansion behaviours: balloon expandable and self-expandable. Within this paper, a new approach to braiding stent-like structures out of a novel shape memory polymer fibre will be discussed. Furthermore, the heat treatment of the stent structure will be investigated to improve its characteristics such as radial stiffness.