Development of a Data Transformation Method for a Customized Stent usingAdditive Manufacturing

Sammanfattning: Conventionally manufactured stents are available in uniform sizes and straight forms. These standard products are not suitable for all patients and research indicates that this is the reason for migration of stents in the vessel, and tubular structure in general, after deployment. The occurrence of migration makes readmission into hospital and the removal of the deployed stent necessary. This thesis develops a method which results in patient-customized stents which can be manufactured through additive manufacturing. These individualized stents intent to offer the same advantages of conventional stents while mitigating the disadvantages. The work’s core part is thedesign of a stent based on the geometric information through a medical scan. It converts the relevant areas from the medical scan data which is in the DICOM format to the STL file format. After cleaning and further processing, the shape will be the base for the design process of a stent using CAD software. Additionally, it also gives insight into the subjacent technologies such as medical scanning, additive manufacturing, choice of material and necessary further processing steps. A process chain from scanning, data transformation, 3D printing and post processing is described.The developed method delivers a reliable model and results in a fully individualized stent. In the current stage, it involves manual work since the representation of data in the steps is different. Further suggestions for steps to automate the process and an estimation of economic efficiency is given.