Biodegradable stent helps children with LTS to breathe more easily

LTS is a narrowing of the airway in children that can result in a life-threatening emergency if untreated.

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Depending on the severity of LTS, doctors will use a combination of endoscopic techniques, surgical repair, tracheostomy, or deployment of stents to hold the airway open and enable breathing.

Stents are a proven technology that hold the airway open and simultaneously allowing the trachea to continue growing, but they can move around or cause damage when they are eventually removed.

New research published in Communications Biology and led by the University of Pittsburgh promises to improve the use of stents, demonstrating for the first time the successful use of a completely biodegradable magnesium-alloy tracheal stent that avoids some of these risks.

"Using commercial non-biodegradable metal or silicone-based tracheal stents has a risk of severe complications and doesn't achieve optimal clinical outcomes, even in adults," said Prashant N. Kumta, Edward R. Weidlein Chair Professor of bioengineering at the Swanson School of Engineering. "Using advanced biomaterials could offer a less invasive, and more successful, treatment option."