An Innovative Stereolithography 3D Tubular Method for Ultrathin Polymeric Stent Manufacture: The Effect of Process Parameters

In the last decades, researchers have been developing bioresorbable stents (BRS) to overcome the long-term complications of drug-eluting stents (DES). However, BRS technology still presents challenging limitations in terms of manufacturing, materials, or mechanical properties. At this juncture, comp...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Bosch Collell, Aniol, Casanova Batlle, Enric, Constantin, Iuliana, Rubio, Carles, Ciurana, Quim de, Guerra Sánchez, Antonio
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10256/23731
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10256/23731
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Pròtesis de Stent -- Fabricació
Stents (Surgery) -- Construction
Polímers en medicina
Polymers in medicine
Impressió 3D
Three-dimensional printing
Fabricació additiva
Additive manufacturing
Descripción
Sumario:In the last decades, researchers have been developing bioresorbable stents (BRS) to overcome the long-term complications of drug-eluting stents (DES). However, BRS technology still presents challenging limitations in terms of manufacturing, materials, or mechanical properties. At this juncture, companies have developed ultrathin DES that may further improve the efficacy and safety profile of traditional DES by reducing the risk of target-lesion and target-vessel failures until BRS are developed. Nonetheless, the metallic platform of ultrathin DES still presents problems related to their cellular response. The use of polymers as a permanent platform in DES has not previously been studied due to the limitations of current manufacturing technologies. In this work, an innovative manufacturing method for polymeric stent production using tubular stereolithography (SLA) technology is proposed both for BRS and for ultrathin polymeric DES. The effects of manufacturing process parameters were studied by modelling the outcomes (stent thickness and strut width) with the key manufacturing variables (exposure, resin volume, and number of layers). Two different laser setups were used to compare the results. Microscopy results proved the merit of this novel tubular SLA process, which was able to obtain stents with 70 μm strut width and thickness in barely 4 min using only 0.2 mL of resin. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) results showed the stability of the manufacturing method. The results obtained with this innovative technology are promising and overcome the limitations of other previously used and available technologies