Magnesium Alloys for Bioabsorbable Stents: A Feasibility Assessment

Today, stent designs consist of permanent metal alloy scaffolds which hold arteries open after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to maintain arterial blood flow. Bioabsorbable stents are being investigated as an alternate for permanent stents, that disintegrate and dissolve in the body. In this article, we profile magnesium (Mg) alloy as a candidate for bioabsorbable stent material, and discuss aspects of its properties and challenges. Experimental data are generated in effort to draw correlations between in vivo vessel absorption and in vitro degradation, and to provide an overview of alloy mechanical properties, stent designs, and electrochemical behaviors. Preclinical porcine coronary model test results exhibit early on-set and rapid corrosion presenting a challenge to researchers to establish material design concepts that balance degradation time, duration for need of scaffolding, and healing.