Importance

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Abstract

An endoluminal prosthetic device comprising axially repeating rings made up in turn of unit cells. The unit cells themselves are made up of circumferentially repeating patterns of multilayered strut members to form the ring. The rings may be axially connected to form a stent or an expandable housing for housing other medical device inserts. The multilayered struts, created by recessed slots cut from various regions in the strut members, permit improved radiopacity, increased flexibility during insertion stage into a lumen and better post-expansion conformability to the longitudinal shape of the body lumen, while providing increased rigidity and strain tolerance once the device has been expanded, as well as improved expansion ratio and fatigue characteristics. Variations on slot placement, length, orientation and shape with respect to the centerline of the strut members permit the optimization of a stent's strength, rigidity, strain and related mechanical properties. This approach reconciles competing needs for an expandable device to be low-profile and flexible enough to facilitate navigation through a tortuous body lumen so as to avoid causing lumen trauma prior to stent expansion and still achieve the expansion ratio and possess the needed radial strength to obtain and maintain lumen patency. Apertures placed in the struts further enable an easy and reliable point of attachment of an insert by means of sewing, stitching or riveting.

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First Claim