Conformation of Adjacent Self-expanding Stents: A Cross-Sectional In Vitro Study

Abstract

We examined the proximal conformation of three commonly used self-expanding stents when the stents were deployed adjacent to one another in a tubular model, simulating a “kissing” stent technique. The stent pairs were evaluated by computed tomogrphy to determine the cross-sectional area excluded by the stents within the model. The mean areas associated with each stent pair were compared and significance evaluated by a t -test. A statistically significant difference was found when the area excluded by adjacent Wallstents was compared with both the Luminexx and SMART stents ( p < 0.001 and p < 0.002, respectively). The difference in the area excluded and differences in conformation might play a role in the lower patencies that have been observed in “kissing” stent series.