Importance

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Abstract

A non-sheath balloon expandable stent delivery system (20) has a catheter-mounted balloon (25) whose ends (26, 27) are invaginated and folded over onto the balloon itself. Thus, when a stent (29) is mounted on the balloon, the balloon ends fold over the ends of the stent, thus covering its ends and serving a sheath function. The folded over ends (26A, 27A) could cover the terminal portions of the stent or could reach to the middle of the stent and cover the entire stent. When the balloon is inflated to deploy the stent; the balloon ends inflate and uncover the stent. The balloon inflation ports in the balloon catheter could be positioned so as to preferentially direct the inflating fluid into the balloon ends/invaginations (26A, 27A) to assure their inflation before the inflation of the body of the balloon. Because the stent will be crimped on the body of the balloon, the pressure and wall tension required to inflate the body of the balloon will be much greater than the pressure required to inflate the unrestricted balloon ends. The balloon ends will thus expand and move off the ends of the stent before the stent expands so as not to become trapped between the stent and an organ or corporeal vessel wall.

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First Claim