Cannula stent
First Claim
1. A cannula stent (10), comprising:
- at least one flexible segment (11) having a plurality of struts (14) extending in pairs from bights (15), the struts of a said pair converging toward each other at respective distal ends thereof when the stent is unexpanded to join respective bights (15) of adjacent strut pairs, continuously about the stent circumference;
at least one hoop segment (12) having a plurality of struts (16) extending in parallel in pairs from bights (17,19) when the stent is unexpanded; and
said at least one flexible segment (11) is joined to least one hoop segment (12) by axial tie bars (21,22) extending from certain ones of bights (15) of said flexible segment (11) to certain ones of said bights (19) of said hoop segment (12), with said axial tie bars (21,22) being disposed between paired adjacent ones of parallel struts (16) in said hoop segment (12).
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Accused Products
Abstract
A stent (10) formed from cannula and having flexible segments (11) and high hoop strength segments (12) alternating therealong. Axial tie bars (21,22) interconnect the segments; minimal length reduction would occur upon expansion. In the high hoop strength segment (12), struts (16) are initially parallel in the unexpanded strut condition, while in the flexible segment (11), struts (14) extend from a respective bight (15) to converge at distal ends when unexpanded. In one embodiment, certain adjacent struts (16) of the hoop segment are spaced apart by a large gap (20) while others are spaced apart by a small gap (18). In another embodiment all the struts (16) of the hoop segment are spaced apart uniformly from each other (or from an axial tie bar) by a small gap (23), resulting in minimizing the occurrence of fatigue of high-stress sites upon expansion/contraction cycles from continuous pulsatile events.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A cannula stent (10), comprising:
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at least one flexible segment (11) having a plurality of struts (14) extending in pairs from bights (15), the struts of a said pair converging toward each other at respective distal ends thereof when the stent is unexpanded to join respective bights (15) of adjacent strut pairs, continuously about the stent circumference;
at least one hoop segment (12) having a plurality of struts (16) extending in parallel in pairs from bights (17,19) when the stent is unexpanded; and
said at least one flexible segment (11) is joined to least one hoop segment (12) by axial tie bars (21,22) extending from certain ones of bights (15) of said flexible segment (11) to certain ones of said bights (19) of said hoop segment (12), with said axial tie bars (21,22) being disposed between paired adjacent ones of parallel struts (16) in said hoop segment (12). - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A cannula stent, comprising;
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at least one flexible segment having a plurality of struts extending in pairs from bights, the struts of a said pair converging toward each other at respective distal ends thereof when the stent is unexpanded to join respective bights of adjacent strut pairs, continuously about the stent circumference;
at least one hoop segment having a plurality of struts extending in parallel in pairs from bights when the stent is unexpanded, wherein the radius of semicircular bights of the flexible segment is larger than the radius of semicircular bights of the hoop segment; and
said at least one flexible segment is joined to least one hoop segment by axial tie bars extending from certain ones of bights of said flexible segment to certain ones of said bights of said hoop segment, with said axial tie bars being disposed between paired adjacent ones of parallel struts in said hoop segment. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification