the.com/stent
A tiny metal scaffold that holds your artery open so it stops holding a grudge.
means A small mesh or tube inserted into a blood vessel, duct, or other passage to hold it open and keep things flowing.
from Named after Charles Thomas Stent, a 19th-century English dentist who developed a moldable compound for taking dental impressions. His name got attached to that substance, then drifted to any device used to hold tissue or a cavity in place or open shape — and by the 20th century, surgeons borrowed the word for the tiny tubes propping open arteries. So the artery scaffold owes its name less to its engineering than to a dentist who just wanted a good impression of your teeth.
- origin story
- named after a 19th century dentist, Charles Stent
- material
- usually a mesh tube of medical grade steel or cobalt alloy
- stays forever
- most are permanent, left inside after insertion
- not just hearts
- also used in bile ducts, airways, and ureters