Vijay S. Iyer, MD, PhD, associate professor of cardiology, is interviewed about a new dissolvable stent that disappears within four years of being implanted.
"There are two concerns with leaving metal behind. One is that that segment of the blood vessel is no longer approachable by a surgeon if they would need to do bypass surgery down the road. Surgeons cannot sew in bypasses into where the stent is,” he said.
“The second concern especially with the drug-eluding stents has been that the natural biology of the blood vessel seems to be altered by the presence of these metal, metallic stents.”
Updated August 3, 2016 This content is archived.