Abstract
Non-invasive delivery of artificial implants, stents or devices in patients is vital for rapid and successful recovery. Unfortunately, because the delivery passage is often narrower than the size of the delivered object, a compromise between the shape that is effective at the targeted location and a thin form that allows smooth unobstructed travel to the destination is needed. We address this problem through two key technologies: 3D printing and shape memory polymers (SMPs). 3D printing can produce patient-customizable objects, and SMPs can change their initially formed shape to the final desired shape through external stimulation. Using these two technologies, we examine the design and fabrication of bifurcated stents. This study presents a mock-up where blood vessels are fabricated using moulded silicon, which supports the effectiveness of the proposed method. The experimental results reveal that a bifurcated stent with a kirigami structure can smoothly travel inside a vessel without being obstructed by branched parts. We believe that this work can improve the success rate of stent insertion operations in medicine.
Highlights
The shape memory effects of materials have been known for a long time, and various applications of shape memory materials, such as fasteners, eyeglass frames, underwires for women’s brassieres, aircraft rivets, heat-shrinking tubes, and medical implants, have been widely recognized[1,2]
The physical bifurcated stents made by 3D printing with shape memory polymers (SMPs) were later inserted into the artificial blood vessels and expanded to the desired shape, verifying the feasibility of our idea
The blood vessel mock-up was made by solidifying silicon (KE-1606, ShinEtsu) mixed with a hardener at room temperature with 3D-printed blood vessels placed at the centre
Summary
The shape memory effects of materials have been known for a long time, and various applications of shape memory materials, such as fasteners, eyeglass frames, underwires for women’s brassieres, aircraft rivets, heat-shrinking tubes, and medical implants, have been widely recognized[1,2]. Bifurcated stents exhibit shapes that have significant protrusion on their sides, thereby making it extremely difficult to travel through the internal vessels to reach the target area. This difficulty is why, in practice, two separate stents are each delivered to the site and fixed at the operating location. The physical bifurcated stents made by 3D printing with SMPs were later inserted into the artificial blood vessels and expanded to the desired shape, verifying the feasibility of our idea. We would like to emphasize that through 3D printing, we can obtain a patient-customized stent that will perfectly fit into the target branched vessels
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