Abstract:Pancreatic duct stents are essential devices for managing chronic pancreatitis, ductal strictures, and postoperative fistula. Conventional plastic and metal stents effectively facilitate pancreatic drainage but often cause infection, restenosis, or migration upon long-term implantation. An ideal stent should provide excellent biocompatibility, efficient drainage, and controllable biodegradation. With advances in material science and medical-engineering integration, stent technology has evolved from inert implantation to intelligent degradation. Biodegradable polymers and metals, particularly magnesium alloys (Mg-Zn-Mn), offer tunable mechanical strength, corrosion resistance, and in vivo degradability. Mg-2Zn-1.0Mn alloy achieves balanced strength and corrosion control through compositional optimization and surface modification. Polymeric stents such as polylactic acid and polydioxanone demonstrate favorable drainage and avoid secondary removal. Composite biodegradable stents, exemplified by the multi-rate ARCHIMEDES model, have received international approval. Supported by 3D printing and smart functionalization-such as drug-eluting or shape-memory designs-next-generation pancreatic stents may achieve integrated functions of support, repair, and tumor inhibition. Future research should emphasize interdisciplinary material design, degradation kinetics under physiological conditions, and long-term biocompatibility to accelerate clinical translation.