Study of heat-setting treatment for biomedical polydioxanone stents

This paper presents a study of heat-setting treatment on tubular polydioxanone stents which can be used as intestinal implants. Two PDO monofilaments with linear densities of 100 ± 2 and 150 ± 2 tex respectively were used for producing a set of weft-knitted tubular stents using a small-diameter, circular weft knitting machine. The heat-setting treatment was used for the stents to restore a tubular shape. The physical, mechanical and thermal properties of the stents were examined before and after the heat-setting treatment. The results of mechanical testing illustrated that the prototype stents in this work could achieve higher radial forces than Wall stents and Z stents on the market. The heat setting with temperature of 80℃ and time of 5 min were found to be more appropriate for the stents. In conclusion, the stents were successfully developed and have potential application for the treatment of intestinal stenosis or obstruction.Institute of Textiles and Clothin