Stent design for gastrointestinal leakage

Stents are largely used to counteract and relieve duct or vessel obstructions. The purpose of this current study is to select a biodegradable, antibacterial and environmentally friendly material to design and prepare a stent to counteract anastomotic leakage following gastrointestinal surgery. A precast moulding process was used to prepare medium molecular weight chitosan scaffolds, for stent design. Chitosan samples were prepared by opening the bonds of the material in acetic acid, moulding the material and curing the mouldings in sodium hydroxide. The film like mouldings were wound around a metallic rod, fixing the layers together with un-cured chitosan and subsequently curing the chitosan layers together with sodium hydroxide producing the stent like shape. Tensile and tensile creep strength of the chitosan material was investigated. This research concluded that chitosan can be moulded into a stent like geometry. Mechanical testing showed the tensile and tensile creep strength were repeatable and could be predetermined. This indicates that chitosan is a suitable material for the further development of a biodegradable stent designed to counteract gastrointestinal leakage.