Stent having circumferentially deformable struts
AssigneeAbbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc.
InventorsBin Huang, David C. Gale
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed is a method of treating a bodily lumen with a stent, the method comprising: disposing a stent within a bodily lumen, the stent comprising a plurality of deformable struts that are substantially circumferentially aligned and are configured to selectively deform in a circumferential direction in localized regions in the struts upon application of an outward radial force; and expanding the stent by applying the outward radial force, wherein the outward radial force causes selective deformation of the deformable struts in a localized region in the struts.
Claims18
A polymer stent configured for being expanded by a balloon, comprising:
- a plurality of rings composed of ring struts connected at connection regions, wherein all of the ring struts extend only in the circumferential direction, both before and after being expanded by the balloon;
- and
- linking struts connecting adjacent rings at the connection regions;
- wherein, for each of the rings, there is at least one deformable strut among the ring struts;
- and
- a notched portion is formed in the at least one deformable strut to induce necking in the deformable strut, the notched portion is spaced apart from the connection regions, whereupon radial expansion of the stent the necking occurring at the notched portion enables the respective ring to increase in diameter and provide radial support for a bodily lumen.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.