Method of heating a nitinol stent

Abstract

A stent and a method of making it from a wire, which method includes winding the wire on a mandrel, heating to form a coiled spring, and reversing the winding direction of the coiled spring to form the reversed coiled spring stent. The stent so formed may be reheated over a special mandrel so as to partly relax the outer portion of some or all of the stent coils. The stent may be made up of two or more sections, with adjoining section wound in opposite senses. Such a stent may be deployed by winding the stent onto a catheter, immobilizing the two ends of the wire and one or more intermediate points, bringing the stent to the location where it is to be deployed, and releasing first the intermediate point or points and then the end points. The release of the wire may be accomplished by heating the thread immobilizing the wire so that the thread breaks and releases the wire.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.