stent

Stent, Charles Thomas (1807–1885), British dentist. In the mid 19th century Stent developed a dental-impression compound containing gutta-percha, stearine, and talc, which he produced and sold with the aid of his sons Charles Robert (1845–1901) and Arthur Howard (1859–1900), who also became dentists. In 1899 the compound was trademarked under the name Stents. During World War I the Dutch plastic surgeon J. F. S. Esser discovered that Stent's compound could also be used to form molds for holding skin grafts in place, and in a 1917 publication he referred to such molds as “stents molds.” Over the next several decades the singular form stent became a generally used term in plastic and oral surgery. The meaning of stent continued to be expanded to include other types of artificial supports for human tissue. In 1954 the American surgeon William ReMine applied the term stent to a polyethylene tube used to support an anastomosis in an experimental biliary reconstruction. By 1966 stent (or sometimes stint) had been used for tubular supports in cardiovascular surgery, and by 1972 the term was also being used for urological supports.