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Biodegradable Stents Designed for Whipple Procedure and Gastrointestinal Surgery: Advancing Postoperative Care
- Program: Materials Science and Engineering
- Course: EN.510.236/336/446 MSE Design Team II
- Year: 2026
Project Description:
This project developed biodegradable Vicryl-PCL hybrid stents designed for use in the Whipple procedure, aiming to replace traditional plastic stents that often require risky surgical retrieval. The stents were fabricated using Kumihimo braiding and dip-coating techniques to create a freestanding porous scaffold. The team then tested degradation performance across multiple simulated biological environments, evaluated mechanical integrity via Young’s Modulus, and used COMSOL Multiphysics computational modeling to predict degradation behavior, all with the goal of producing a stent that dissolves naturally within a clinically safe timeframe.
Project Photo:
Johns Hopkins researchers display their biodegradable stent prototypes, designed to dissolve naturally after gastrointestinal surgery, no removal required.
