about type, costs, volumes, pros and cons of the tra-
cheal stents available on themarket.Customer requests
and opinions were used to define the QFD matrix of
the tracheal stents in order to identify the functional
requirements of the ideal stent. The ideal stent should
be: well anchored to the trachea, customized, requires
3D machines to be produced and has to be produced
in a large variety of shapes. Moreover, low volume
batches of stent have to be produced each year. The
new stent proposed by the Authors, that fulfil all these
requirements, consists of a tailored solution that uses
CT scan of the patient to design a stent. In this way, the
stent can reproduce the inner anatomy of the trachea,
the anchorage is improved and the stent migration
reduced. ...