A device in the form of a spring for supporting tubular structures.

The common use of stents in cardiology is as a supplement to Angioplasty (ballooning) procedures. One of the principal problems of the ballooning procedure for dilating a Coronary artery was re-stenosis of the dilated segment after a relative short time.

The use of stents substantially reduced the rate of re-stenosis.

Recently, stents that act also by chemical methods by secreting a substance, which is capable of reducing cell replication (drug eluting stents), were developed. This can further reduce the rate of re-stenosis.