First report on free expansion simulations of a dedicated bifurcation stent mounted on a stepped balloon

Virtual bench testing is an established method to gain valuable insights in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of bifurcation lesions. A previous study described virtual bench testing of the first generation of the Tryton (Tryton Medical, Inc., Durham, NC, USA) dedicated bifurcation stent, mounted on a straight delivery balloon. However, nowadays most Tryton stents are implanted on a stepped delivery balloon to adapt to the fractal geometry of bifurcation lesions. Virtual stent deployment using a stepped delivery balloon is challenging and has not been reported before.