Method and Apparatus for Making a Braided Stent with Spherically Ended Wires
AssigneeAMS Research Corporation
InventorsGary Nachreiner, Robert Rykhus, Sidney Hauschild, Mark Polyak
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for cutting a braided wire stent to a predetermined length such that a ball or sphere is formed on the end of each cut wire of the stent. These spheres are advantageous in that they provide added comfort to the patient and also act against the other wires of the stent to prevent the stent from becoming unbraided during the process of collapsing and expanding the stent such as is done when the stent is being inserted into a patient. The apparatus releasably holds and precisely positions the wires while the spheres are being formed.
Claims10
A stent for placement in a body lumen comprising:
- a plurality of right-handed helical strands, each having a first end and a second end;
- a plurality of left-handed helical strands, each having a first end and a second end;
- said plurality of right-handed helical strands being interwoven with said plurality of left-handed helical strands such that said stent has a periphery defined by a series of diamond-shaped openings;
- and,
- said first end of each of said plurality of right and left-handed helical strands including a sphere formed from melting a predetermined length of each of said first ends, said predetermined length being partially defined by an acclivitous angle at which each of said first ends contact an energy field emanating from a melting source.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.