Noncylindrical drug eluting stent for treating vascular bifurcations
AssigneeDevax, Inc.
InventorsJacques Seguin, Robert John Elicker, Jean-Claude Laborde
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Abstract
A device and method for treating pathological narrowing of fluid-carrying conduits of the human body (such as blood vessels) in an area of a bifurcation is disclosed. In particular, a stent delivery system configured to carry one or more of a pair of dissimilar stents. At least one of the stents is particularly suited for treating a widened portion of a blood vessel immediately proximal to a bifurcation. The stent delivery system can also include a handpiece adapted to selectively deliver the stents.
Claims27
A method of treating a vascular bifurcation of a main coronary vessel into a first and a second branch vessels, comprising the steps of:
- providing a delivery catheter having a stent thereon, the stent having an upstream end and a downstream end with at least one marker on the downstream end, and being self expandable to a configuration having a single central lumen in which the upstream end has a smaller dimension than the downstream end;
- positioning the catheter such that the stent is at a treatment site within the main coronary vessel with the downstream end adjacent the vascular bifurcation;
- deploying the stent in the main coronary vessel such that the stent self expands to a configuration in which the upstream end of the stent has a smaller dimension than the downstream end of the stent, and in which the downstream end communicates with both the first and the second branch vessels, wherein said deploying comprises moving a releasable restraint having a plurality of expansion limiting bands with respect to said stent;
- and
- eluting a drug from the stent at the treatment site.
A method of treating a vascular bifurcation of a main coronary vessel into first and second branch vessels, comprising the steps of:
- deploying a substantially cylindrical stent in a first branch vessel which is downstream with respect to the bifurcation;
- deploying a tapered stent in the main coronary vessel, upstream with respect to the bifurcation, such that the tapered stent has at least one marker and a single central lumen and tapers in the downstream direction from a smaller upstream end to a larger downstream end which faces the bifurcation, wherein said deploying a tapered stent comprises moving a releasable restraint having a plurality of expansion limiting bands with respect to said tapered stent;
- and
- delivering an active agent from at least one of the cylindrical and the tapered stents.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.