Stent News and Research

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A stent is a small mesh tube that’s used to treat narrowed or weakened arteries in the body.

You may have a stent placed in an artery as part of a procedure called angioplasty (AN-jee-oh-plas-tee). Angioplasty can restore blood flow through narrowed or blocked arteries. Stents help prevent arteries from becoming narrowed or blocked again in the months or years after treatment with angioplasty. You may also have a stent placed in a weakened artery to improve blood flow and to help prevent the artery from bursting.

Stents are usually made of metal mesh, but sometimes they’re made of fabric. Fabric stents, also called stent grafts, are used in larger arteries. Some stents are coated with medicines that are slowly and continuously released into the artery. These medicines help prevent the artery from becoming blocked again.

Angioplasty improves symptoms in chronic total coronary occlusion patients

In what is believed to be the first randomized placebo-controlled trial of its kind, patients with a chronic total blockage of a coronary artery who received a nonsurgical procedure to reopen the artery showed statistically significant reductions in chest pain and improvements in quality of life compared with patients who received a placebo procedure.

29 Mar 2026

Temporary heart pump before PCI shows no significant benefit

The first randomized trial to test whether adding a small, temporary pump to allow the heart to rest and intentionally delaying percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), also known as coronary angioplasty, for 30 minutes to reduce heart damage compared with standard immediate PCI in patients with heart attacks at risk for a large amount of heart damage found no significant difference between the two groups, the study's primary endpoint. The research was presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session (ACC.26).

28 Mar 2026

Expanded access to rotational atherectomy maintains safety in PCI procedures

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a standard treatment for significant coronary artery disease. Cardiologists use a catheter to place a stent that opens up the blockage and restores blood flow to the heart.

19 Mar 2026

Woven EndoBridge intrasaccular therapy shows promise for treating complex brain aneurysms

A prospective multicenter study reports that Woven EndoBridge intrasaccular therapy safely and effectively treats unruptured wide-necked bifurcation aneurysms, one of the most challenging brain aneurysm types to manage.

11 Mar 2026

Rising primary PCI rates do not correlate with lower heart attack mortality in Europe

An increase in the number of percutaneous coronary interventions does not appear to have resulted in reduced mortality rates, according to results presented today at the EAPCI Summit 2026.

20 Feb 2026

New insights on spontaneous coronary artery dissection in young patients

New insights into spontaneous coronary artery dissection – a devastating cause of heart attacks in young, healthy patients – were presented today at the EAPCI Summit 2026.

20 Feb 2026

4D-printed vascular stents expand naturally at body temperature

Cardiovascular diseases constitute a major global health concern. Various complications that affect normal blood flow in arteries and veins, such as stroke, blood clot formation in veins, blood vessel rupture, and coronary artery disease, often require vascular treatments.

6 Feb 2026

Carotid artery procedures do not improve cognitive performance

Improving blood flow to the brain by opening a narrowed neck artery may not improve patients' cognitive skills, according to a preliminary late-breaking science presentation at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2026.

4 Feb 2026

Aneurysm with a cervical artery dissection may not increase risk of stroke later

People who developed a type of aneurysm with a cervical artery dissection (a tear in the inner lining of the neck artery wall), a known cause of stroke, particularly in young adults, did not have an increased risk of stroke within the six months after diagnosis, according to a preliminary study to be presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2026.

29 Jan 2026

Biodegradable pill improves medication adherence monitoring

In an advance that could help ensure people are taking their medication on schedule, MIT engineers have designed a pill that can report when it has been swallowed.

8 Jan 2026

Researchers successfully perform coronary artery bypass without cutting the chest wall

In a world-first, a team of researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, has successfully performed a coronary artery bypass - a normally open-heart surgery - without cutting the chest wall.

6 Jan 2026

Women may derive greater long-term benefits from coronary artery bypass grafting compared with stents

Women with severe coronary heart disease causing narrowing or blockages in the arteries may derive greater long-term benefits from coronary artery bypass grafting compared with percutaneous coronary intervention, also known as stenting, according to a large study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

22 Dec 2025

Higher stent complication risks found in patients with diabetes

Patients with diabetes have an increased risk of complications after stent implantation, according to a study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in Diabetes Care.

27 Nov 2025

Cardiologists recommend reassessing need for additional stents later

A blocked coronary artery causing an acute heart attack must be opened immediately with a stent procedure. However, if other coronary arteries also appear to be narrowed, it is safe to wait and treat those later. This approach cuts the number of stent procedures in half, according to cardiologists from Radboud university medical center, writing in The New England Journal of Medicine.

14 Nov 2025

Researchers identify a protein vital to endothelial wound healing after surgery

Surgeons in the United States perform nearly 600,000 coronary artery stent procedures and bypass surgeries every year.

12 Nov 2025

One-month dual therapy strategy offers advantages for AFib patients and clinicians

New research found a simplified clot-preventing medication regimen following stent placement in adults with atrial fibrillation was just as safe and effective in preventing strokes, heart attack and death, when compared to a standard year-long treatment regimen, according to a preliminary late-breaking science presentation today at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2025.

11 Nov 2025

Comparative study finds higher rates of adverse events with ticagrelor

One year of treatment with either of two strong blood-thinning medications—ticagrelor and prasugrel—by people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes who had a drug-eluting stent placed in their heart to treat coronary artery blockages did not offer the same level of benefit to prevent stent clotting, heart attacks, and bleeding complications, according to findings presented during a preliminary late-breaking science session during the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2025 in New Orleans on November 10.

10 Nov 2025

Prasugrel shows advantage over ticagrelor in diabetic patients after stent placement

One year of dual antiplatelet therapy with one of two potent P2Y12 inhibitors-ticagrelor or prasugrel-in people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes who had received a drug-eluting stent did not offer the same level of benefit at preventing stent clotting, heart attacks and bleeding complications, according to a preliminary late-breaking science presentation today at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2025.

10 Nov 2025

Sirolimus-eluting balloon emerges as a safe and effective option for coronary in-stent restenosis

A new drug-eluting balloon can perform just as well as the standard treatment for patients with coronary in-stent restenosis (ISR) undergoing repeated percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

31 Oct 2025

Study highlights non-inferiority of super-high-pressure non-compliant balloons in coronary interventions

New study findings show that utilizing super-high-pressure non-compliant balloons (NCB) is non-inferior to intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) balloon catheters for lesion preparation and stent expansion in severely calcified lesions during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

28 Oct 2025