Bare-metal stent

Bare-metal stent
Intervention
A stent diagonally from the front
ICD-9-CM	00.63, 36.06, 39.90
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Bare-metal stent is a stent without a coating or covering (as used in covered stents drug-eluting stents). It is a mesh-like tube of thin wire. The first stents licensed for use in cardiac arteries were bare metal – often 316L stainless steel. More recent ('2nd generation') stents use cobalt chromium alloy. The first stents used in gastrointestinal conditions of the esophagus, gastroduodenum, biliary ducts, and colon were plastic; bare metal stents were first brought the clinic in the 1990s.

Drug-eluting stents are often preferred over bare-metal stents because the latter carry a higher risk of restenosis, the growth of tissue into the stent resulting in vessel narrowing.