Stents, or coronary stents, is used primarily to aid healing or relieve an obstruction in cardiovascular diseases. Dissolvable stent is one type of coronary stent where splints are placed temporarily and gradually fades away. The scaffold of the stent built from a polymer called polylactic acid-a naturally dissolvable material. The material breaks down into carbon dioxide and water and disappears completely after three to four years and returns the artery to its natural state.

Metallic stent, on the other hand, is made out of metals and not dissolvable. The presence of metallic stent causes inflammation and irritation of the coronary vessels which can lead to problems like stent thrombosis, development of artery-blocking or blood clot and may prevent future surgical interventions. To avoid sustained inflammation problems, dissolvable stents currently appear as the most promising fields in cardiology. It leads to recovery of endothelial function of a cell which makes it responsive again to vasoactive agents. Once the stent disappears the patient no longer needs prolonged double antiplatelet therapy, further reducing the risk of bleeding. The artery is not caged permanently and the risk of stent thrombosis is reduced significantly. Dissolvable stents increase the average surface area within the blood vessel and improve vessel movement.

This technique promises to overcome long-term implications of metal caging of the artery and also solves the problem of bifurcation stenting. Although there are other various techniques available, but, many issues prevail in them, which make dissolvable stents advantageous over metallic stents.