Actually, these devices are used in several situations in order to support any tubular passage such as the esophagus and bile duct, and blood vessels such as the coronary, iliac, carotid, aorta and femoral arteries.
In this type of application, a cylindrical scaffold with shape memory is placed, for example, inside a blood vessel through a catheter. Initially, this scaffold is pre-compressed in its martensitic state.
the scaffold is heated, due to the body temperature, it tends to recover its original shape, expanding itself. This device can be used not only in the angioplasty procedure, in order to prevent another obstruction of a vessel, but also in the treatment of aneurysms for the support of a weakened vessel.