Stents

Abstract

For over three decades, stents have been used in congenital heart disease with increasing experience and application in more diverse lesions at all ages. Stent implantation enables overcoming of several limitations of isolated balloon dilation leading to a superior relief of stenosis both acutely and in the long term. Especially elastic lesions, long-segment stenoses, hypoplastic vessels, stenoses related to kinking or tension on a vessel respond better to stent implantation. However, several issues unique to the paediatric population like small vessel access, difficulty in advancing the rigid stent through a tortuous vascular route or somatic growth requiring stent redilation warrant careful selection of stent and implementation of modified interventional techniques.