Flat process of preparing drug eluting stents

Abstract

The present invention provides a method of fabricating a drug delivery stent. In one embodiment, the method involves forming a stent pattern in a flat sheet, where the stent pattern includes reservoirs, generating a flat map of the reservoirs, filling the reservoirs with a composition based on the flat map, and then forming the filled stent pattern into a tubular shape and joining the sides. In another embodiment, the method involves forming a stent pattern in a flat sheet, generating a flat map of discrete portions of the stent pattern that are desirable locations for coating, coating the discrete portions with a composition based on the flat map, and then forming the coated stent pattern into a tubular shape and joining the sides. The invention provides advantages over current methods and drug-delivery stents in that it is faster, more accurate and more cost-efficient manufacturing process for fabricating drug delivery stents, that improves quality and consistency of drug delivery within and across batches of stents, and that permits automated a process of quality control. This method also allows for differential coating on the two surfaces of the stent struts, whereby the two sides are coated with different drugs and/or polymer combinations, or only one side of the strut is coated.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.