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REVIEW article

Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Structural Interventional Cardiology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2024.1410305
This article is part of the Research Topic From Interventional Pearls to Pioneering Technologies in Transcatheter Treatment of Congenital Heart Defects View all 21 articles

Absorbable metal stents for vascular use in pediatric cardiology: progress and outlook

Provisionally accepted
Daniel McLennan Daniel McLennan 1Jennifer R. Maldonado Jennifer R. Maldonado 2,3,4Susan R. Foerster Susan R. Foerster 2,3,4Stephanie S. Handler Stephanie S. Handler 2,3,4John F. LaDisa John F. LaDisa 2,3,5,6Todd M. Gudausky Todd M. Gudausky 2,3,4Roger J. Guillory II Roger J. Guillory II 2,3,5*
  • 1 Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool, United Kingdom
  • 2 Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
  • 3 The Herma Heart Institute, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
  • 4 Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
  • 5 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
  • 6 Department of Physiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The past five years have yielded impressive advancements in fully absorbable metal stent technology. The desired ultimate ability for such devices to treat a vascular stenosis without long-term devicerelated complications or impeding future treatment continues to evoke excitement in clinicians and engineers alike. Nowhere is the need for fully absorbable metal stents greater than in patients experiencing vascular anomalies associated with congenital heart disease (CHD). Perhaps not surprisingly, commercially available absorbable metal stents have been implanted in pediatric cardiology patients with conditions ranging from pulmonary artery and vein stenosis to coarctation of the aorta and conduit/shunt reconstructions. Despite frequent short term procedural success, device performance has missed the mark with the commercially available devices that have been implanted to date by not yet being fully absorbable or degrading too quickly for a given application. In this review we first provide a general overview detailing the theory of absorbable metal stents, and then review recent clinical use in CHD patients since the release of current-generation absorbable metal stents around 2019. We also discuss the challenges and our center's experience associated with the use of absorbable metal stents in this pediatric population. Lastly, we present potential directions for future engineering endeavors to mitigate existing challenges.

    Keywords: Absorbable metals1, Magnesium2, zinc3, iron4, Pediatric stents5

    Received: 31 Mar 2024; Accepted: 19 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 McLennan, Maldonado, Foerster, Handler, LaDisa, Gudausky and Guillory II. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Roger J. Guillory II, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 53226, Wisconsin, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.