Vanishing Devices: Doctors implant disappearing stents, heart patches

Novel heart devices fashioned primarily from materials that the body can absorb or break down have made their debut in patients.

This week, cardiologists presented the first clinical studies of two such devices at a conference on cardiovascular therapies in Washington, D.C. The body absorbs most of one novel implant, a patch that can fix heart defects, and it degrades the other, a stent that can prop open a narrowed artery.