The stent designed for drug delivery
Conor Medsystems' stents are different from conventional surface-coated stents and have been designed specifically for drug delivery. Rather than retrofitting a bare metal stent with a drug coating, Conor's stent design incorporates hundreds of small holes, each acting as a reservoir into which drug-polymer compositions can be loaded.

Conor's stents incorporate special, proprietary structural elements called "ductile hinges," which enable Conor to create drug reservoirs in its stent struts. Ductile hinges are specially contoured features that absorb virtually all of the mechanical stresses that occur as a stent is expanded inside the coronary artery. This stress absorption mechanism allows for other structural elements of the stent including the drug/polymer containing reservoirs to remain relatively deformation-free. This has two important consequences. First, Conor can incorporate its reservoirs into the stent struts without compromising strength, scaffolding or flexibility. Second, since the reservoirs are largely non-deforming during stent expansion, the drug-polymer composition in the reservoirs will not be extruded, fractured or otherwise disrupted upon stent expansion. This in turn allows Conor to use polymers in its reservoirs which do not have the level of elasticity, adhesion and other properties required in surface coatings.