Breaking the limit: mechanical characterization of overexpanded balloon expandable stents used in congenital heart disease.

Objective: Intravascular stent placement in patients with congenital heart disease has replaced several surgical procedures because the desired outcome is achieved with a lower risk of complications. However, the blood vessels of children undergo a two- to threefold diameter increase due to somatic growth creating a dilemma: Can stents implanted in infants and children be serially dilated to significantly larger diameters without losing integrity and important mechanical characteristics? Our aim was to assess the expansion potential and to characterize mechanical parameters of balloon expandable stents at the maximum expansion diameter.

Design: Sixteen commonly used stent designs were evaluated.