DEPLOYMENT OF AN INTRAVASCULAR STENT IN CORONARY STENOTIC ARTERIES: A COMPUTATIONAL STUDY

INTRODUCTION Intravascular stents are small tube-like structures placed into stenotic arteries to restore blood flow perfusion to the downstream tissues [1]. If compared to angioplasty, stent higher efficiency is supported by randomized trials and clinical studies. Nevertheless, problems and difficulties remain, such as migrations, collapses, cloth formation, positioning difficulties (flexibility, trackability, etc...) and re-stenosis. The stent expansion includes large displacements and deformations, geometric and material non-linearity, which are difficult to properly simulate. The purpose of this work is to study by means of the finite element method the effects of the expansion of a metallic stent on a stenotic coronary artery in terms of stresses and contact pressures.