Medical Uses of Nitinol

The growth of Nitinol in the medical industries has exploded in the past ten years. Patients and care providers have encouraged the transition from traditional open-surgical procedures, which require long hospital stays, to less-invasive techniques, which are often performed in out-patient clinics. This demand for minimally invasive procedures has allowed novel instrumentation and implants to be designed. An increasing number of these devices use Nitinol as the critical component. Examples of medical applications range from orthodontic archwires and endoscopic instrumetns to endovascular stents. This paper will focus on key performance attributes of Nitinol that make it an ideal material for medical applications. Specific applications will be introduced through their use of the enabling features.