6. Metallic Biodegradable Coronary Stent: Stent Prototyping

Iron-manganese alloys have been designed, developed and assessed as material for biodegradable metallic coronary stent. The alloys have shown mechanical and physical properties comparable to those of 316L stainless steel and suitable in vitro degradation behavior. Therefore, it is interesting to transform the alloys into stent prototype, to determine their processability and to assess the implant properties. The current available technology of stent processing might be adapted to fabricate biodegradable stents. This chapter covers fabrication of iron-manganese stents that followed a standard process for fabricating and testing 316L stainless steel stents. It was found that some steps like laser cutting can be directly applied; but changes on the parameters are needed for annealing and alternatives are needed to replace electropolishing.