Today, doctors can perform surgical procedures that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. Behind some of these advances is a little-known but essential innovation in modern medicine: the super-elastic material nitinol.
In a brightly lit operating room, a surgeon guides a long, slender instrument through natural body openings, navigating around the patient’s organs to reach exactly the right place.
In another operating room, a surgeon delivers an implant through narrow blood vessels, guiding it to its final position deep inside the body. Once released, the device stays there, supporting, opening or closing a passage that the body can no longer manage on its own.
The unseen enabler: a super-elastic material
What makes these procedures possible is a smart alloy processed by Alleima that is designed to bend without breaking, then return to its original shape: nitinol.
The material is also biocompatible, so that it can stay in the body without causing harmful reactions, meaning it can be safely used for long-term implants.
For more than two decades, Alleima has been processing nitinol for medical applications. You will never see it at work. Most patients will never even hear its name. But nitinol is there, an unseen star of modern medicine.
If you want to know more about the product, please visit: Memory metal with super elastic features — Alleima