Importance

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Abstract

The drug loaded stent includes an expandable stent structural member, and a planar sheet of polymeric material attached to the outside of the expandable stent structural member. The polymeric material is preferably bioabsorbable, and loaded or coated with a therapeutic agent or drug to reduce or prevent restenosis in the vessel being treated. The polymer material can be attached to the metal stent at one or more points, and wrapped in a coil around the stent in an unexpanded state, to uncoil and expand in diameter to substantially match the expanded diameter of the metal stent; or can be wrapped tightly around the stent structural member and attached to itself, to stretch radially when the stent structural member is expanded. In another currently preferred embodiment, a combination of a stent structural member and a polymeric film wrapping can be provided with a coating of lubricious material. The lubricious material can be polyethylene oxide, polyethylene glycol, polyethylene acetate, polyvinyl pyrrolidone, polyvinyl alcohol, polyacrylamide, hydrophilic soft segment urethanes, some natural gums, polyanhydrides or other similar hydrophilic polymers, and combinations thereof. The layer of lubricious material protects the stent from the guide or the body lumen in which the stent is inserted by providing a low friction surface over the stent.

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First Claim