Stent
AssigneeC. R. Bard, Inc.
InventorsThilo Wack, Thomas Haas
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Abstract
A radially expansible annular stent is disclosed. The stent comprises a plurality of stenting turns around a lumen centered on a longitudinal axis. Adjacent turns of the stent are joined by connector struts. The stent annulus has a wall thickness related to the material from which it is formed. The radial thickness of the connector struts is smaller than that of the stent annulus. A method of making such a stent is also disclosed. The method includes cutting the connector struts from a tubular workpiece with a laser beam. The laser beam is aimed so as to be offset from a longitudinal axis of the workpiece to provide the reduced radial thickness of the connector struts.
Claims5
A method of making a stent having a plurality of turns around a longitudinal axis comprising:
- cutting a tubular workpiece with a beam to form a connector strut having a thickness less than a wall thickness of the tubular workpiece, wherein:
- the beam does not intersect the longitudinal axis,
- a first turn portion immediately adjacent to the connector strut has a thickness less than the wall thickness of the tubular workpiece,
- a second turn portion has a thickness greater than the first turn portion,
- the connector strut comprises cut surfaces that intersect to form a luminal angle at a luminal point further from the longitudinal axis than a luminal workpiece surface,
- the connector strut comprises cut surfaces that intersect to form an abluminal angle at an abluminal point closer to the longitudinal axis than an abluminal workpiece surface, and
- a transverse connector strut cross-section does not have a mirror symmetry plane containing the longitudinal axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.