Implantable vascular and endoluminal stents and process of fabricating the same

US5843117A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Inflow Dynamics, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Eckhard Alt · Ottobrunn, DE
• Thilo Fliedner · Munich, DE
• Robert Alter · Neubiberg, DE
• Axel Stemberger · Neubiberg, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 14, 1996
• Grant date: Dec 1, 1998
• Expiry date: Feb 14, 2016

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S623/901
• WIPO field: Medical technology
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A vascular or endoluminal stent adapted for deployment in a vessel or tract of a patient to maintain an open lumen therein is formed from a metal open-ended tube which is the single component of the stent. The tube has a multiplicity of holes cut by laser through its wall. The through-holes are encompassed by serpentines that constitute the wall, the serpentines extending sinusoidally each in multiple 360.degree. wavelengths in a single turn about the axis of the tube and juxtaposed in plural substantially identical segments disposed with regularity along the axis. Each segment has a length equal to the distance between crests and troughs of the sinusoid. Adjacent serpentines are joined together at crest and trough, respectively, so that their interconnections are 180.degree. out of phase relative to their wavelength. The serpentines and interconnections thereof are shaped throughout for optimum uniform expansion of the stent during deployment thereof, including a notch substantially symmetrically located at either side of the junction of the respective crest and trough of the interconnections between adjacent serpentines. The serpentines are substantially devoid of sharp corners a…