Helical stent having improved flexibility and expandability
First Claim
1. A stent for insertion into a vessel of a patient, the stent comprising:
- a central portion comprised of a plurality of helical circumferential windings, each of said windings including a plurality of undulations, wherein each undulation comprises a pair of struts connected to each other, bridges extending between undulations on adjacent windings to connect adjacent helical windings to each other, wherein a same number of struts is traversed from any one bridge to a next bridge on each of said windings when traveling in either a right-handed or left-handed direction along each of said windings.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A stent includes a central portion of helically wound undulations formed of struts, cylindrical end portions, and transition zones between the helical portion and the cylindrical portions. According to a first aspect of the invention, the torsional flexibility of the stent is maximized by having bridges connecting adjacent winding be interrupted by the maximum possible number of undulations. In a preferred design, each winding includes nineteen undulations around the circumference, bridges are provided every five undulations. According to a second aspect of the invention, uniform opening of the transition zone is achieved by altering the width, and thereby the flexibility, of a series of struts in accordance with their lengths. Specifically, the long transition zone struts are made wider.
-
Citations
19 Claims
-
1. A stent for insertion into a vessel of a patient, the stent comprising:
-
a central portion comprised of a plurality of helical circumferential windings, each of said windings including a plurality of undulations, wherein each undulation comprises a pair of struts connected to each other, bridges extending between undulations on adjacent windings to connect adjacent helical windings to each other, wherein a same number of struts is traversed from any one bridge to a next bridge on each of said windings when traveling in either a right-handed or left-handed direction along each of said windings. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A stent for insertion into a vessel of a patient, comprising:
-
a central portion comprised of;
a plurality of helical circumferential windings, each of said windings including a plurality of undulations, bridges extending between said adjacent windings, wherein, for at least one of said windings, for any given number n of undulations on said winding and any given number b of bridges connected to said winding;
where n is not equal to b, a maximum number of undulations is provided between said bridges. - View Dependent Claims (14)
-
-
15. A stent for insertion into a vessel of a patient, comprising:
-
a central portion comprised of a plurality of helical circumferential windings, each of said windings including a plurality of undulations, with each said undulation being defined by two adjacent struts connected together, at least one cylindrical end portion at an end of said central portion, and transition zones between said central portion and each of said cylindrical end portions, said transition zone including a plurality of transition undulations having struts that progressively increase in length, wherein a relatively longer strut of said transition undulations has a relatively wider width than a relatively shorter strut of said transition undulations - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
-
Specification