Method and apparatus for making a stent

Abstract

Abstract A stent comprising a coil including a plurality of arcuate sections (40, 42, 50, 52) that alternate directions around a central axis (38) each arcuate section including a pair of curved turns joined by a cusp (48, 58) and the cusps of adjacent arcuate sections intermeshing and defining at least one region of overlap, which in turn describes a helix around and along the length of the coil. In the preferred embodiment, there are two regions of overlap, which together describe a double helix. In another preferred embodiment, the stent is bifurcated so as to support a branched vessel or the like. A method for forming a stent, including the steps of providing a flat sheet of material, chemically etching said sheet to form a blank, and forming said blank into a cylindrical coil, is also disclosed. The coiling step is preferably carried out on a plurality of rollers.

Inventors

• 👤 David Paul Summers

Bibliographic Details