Removable stent for body lumens
AssigneeEthicon, Inc.
InventorsShawn Thayer Huxel, Arindam Datta, Yufu Li, Dennis D. Jamiolkowski, E. Richard Skula
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Abstract
A removable stent for implantation into a lumen in a human body. The stent is made from a soft, flexible fiber having an outer surface. An outer bioabsorbable/degradable coating is applied to the outer surface of the filament causing it to become rigid. The coating softens in vivo through absorption and/or degradation such that the stent is readily passed or removed from the lumen as a softened filament after a pre-determined period of time through normal flow of body fluids passing through the lumen or by manual removal.
Claims26
A stent, comprising:
- a helical structure having a plurality of coils, said structure having a longitudinal axis and said coils having a pitch, said structure having an internal longitudinal passage wherein said structure is made from a filament having a cross-section and an outer surface, said filament comprising:
- a soft flexible elongated member having an outer surface;
- and
- a bioabsorbable or biodegradable polymeric outer coating on the outer surface of the member;
- wherein, the polymeric coating has sufficient mechanical integrity to effectively maintain the flexible member in a helical configuration, until the coating has sufficiently been degraded or absorbed in vivo to effectively convert the helical structure back into a soft, elongated member.
A method of maintaining a passageway of a body lumen substantially open, comprising the steps of:
- providing a stent, said stent comprising:
- a helical structure having a plurality of coils, said structure having a longitudinal axis and a longitudinal passage, and said coils having a pitch, wherein said structure is made from a fiber, said fiber having a cross-section and said filament comprising:
- an elongated flexible, filament member, having an external surface and a cross-section;
- and,
- a polymeric outer coating on the surface of the member, wherein, the polymeric coating has sufficient mechanical integrity to effectively maintain the flexible member in a helical configuration;
- and,
- implanting said stent in a body lumen and maintaining the stent in the body lumen for a sufficient period of time to effectively maintain the passageway of the lumen substantially open for a desired period of time until the exterior coating softens, thereby converting the stent structure into a soft, flexible filamentary structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.