intramedullary bone stents can be designed to create both compressive and tensile force at the fracture site being stiff to stabilize but just flexible enough to cause ample hydrostatic pressure lt u00b1 0 15 mpa to create direct bone formation at the fracture site types of stents there are a number of different types of devices for stenting of body passages these may be classified into two general categories expandable meshes which include self expanding types and non self expanding types and non expandable meshes which are typically made of plastic or polymeric material the self expanding meshes can be made of a material such as nitinol which changes configuration upon heating to body temperature and exhibits superelastic behavior other self expanding meshes are made of resilient mesh material which can be flexed down into a small diameter tube and held in place in such a configuration until it is released at which time it expands to a larger diameter configuration the non self expanding meshes are expanded by use of an inflatable balloon which is placed inside the mesh in a small diameter configuration and then inflated thereby expanding the mesh to a larger diameter configuration the balloon is then deflated for removal leaving the mesh in its expanded configuration both types of mesh constructs may be applied to the present invention the expandable mesh intramedullary bone stents can be made from a variety of materials e g stainless steel the expandable mesh intramedullary bone stents can be made in a variety of configurations such as a coiled spring a variety of zig zag patterns including various stents known.