Importance

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Abstract

An intraluminal graft for placement in a blood vessel, duct, or lumen, to hold it open. The graft comprises a sleeve having plural stents thereon. The sleeve is an elongated tubular member formed of a conventional graft material which is flexible and impervious to the ingrowth of tissue therein. Each stent is a generally ring-like member formed a plurality of interconnected movable links and is mounted about the periphery of a surface, e.g., inner or outer, of the sleeve at selected points along the sleeve to form respective spaced first sleeve sections. Each of the first sections extends for only a portion of the length of the graft, thereby leaving a plurality of second sleeve sections interposed between the first sleeve sections. The stents and the sleeve are arranged to be expanded, e.g., by a balloon catheter, from a compact state to an expanded state to increase the inner cross sectional area diameter of the sleeve. In the expanded state the stents are resistant to contraction back to the compact state. The graft is able to bend with respect to its longitudinal axis to enable it to be readily accommodated within a curved blood vessel, duct, or lumen.

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First Claim