The treatment of peripheral vascular diseases is one of the most rapidly expanding fields of medicine today. The number of peripheral interventions increased and innovative endovascular techniques are close to the results of traditional vascular surgeries. Although balloon angioplasty alone offers good immediate results, implantation of stents has been proposed to improve the procedural success and extend its application to more patients with peripheral vascular disease. However, stenting is controversial. Use of stents has good results in aortoiliac vessels, but its use in femoropopliteal vessels is still in dispute. Moreover, the rapid development of endovascular stents for peripheral applications and their choice have been a complicated task for endovascular surgeons. Many factors influence choice of stent, therefore, knowledge of available stents is mandatory. Appropriate selection depends on adequate preprocedural evaluation of the lesion, choice of primary vs. selective stent placement, and location and characteristics of the lesion. In this article the history of stent development is reviewed, from studies with experimental models to clinical practice, and its application in the treatment of peripheral vascular diseases is discussed.
Artery; vascular graft; peripheral vascular diseases