Abstract

The word stent appears in the Index Medicus as of 1952, while in Croatian articles as of 1993. The origin of the word has been attributed to British dentist Charles. T. Stent (1807-1885), maker of the compound for dental impressions (Stent's compound). Viennese surgeon, Johannes F. S. Esser (1877-1946) used the compound in plastic surgery of the face calling it an eponym Stent's mould. During the 1950's, William H. ReMine and John H. Grindlay used Stent's principle for omentum lined plastic tubes in the bile duct of a dog. The development of today's vascular stents began in 1912 when French Nobel Prize winner Alexis Carrel (1873-1944) implanted glass tubes in the arteries of dogs. The first metal spirals were implanted in the arteries of dogs by Charles T. Dotter (1920-1985), while the first stents in human arteries were implanted by French doctors Ulrich Sigwart and Jacques Puel in Toulouse in 1986. Some authors claim that the origin of the word stent is associated with the Scotish word stynt or stent, meaning stretched out river fishing nets.