| 摘要 |
An expandable tissue supporting device (20) of the present invention employ s ductile hinges (32) at selected points in the expandable device. When expansion forces are applied to the device as a whole, the ductile hinges concentrate expansion stresses and strains in small well defined areas. The expandable tissue supporting device includes a plurality of elongated beams arranged in a cylindrical device and connected together by a plurality of ductile hinges, where the elongated beams include a plurality of holes for containing a beneficial agent, such as a drug or chemotherapeutic agent. Although many ductile hinge configurations are possible, the ductile hinges preferably have a substantially constant hinge cross-sectional area which is smaller than a beam cross- sectional area such that as the device is expanded from a first diameter to a second diameter, the ductile hinges experience plastic deformation while the beams are not plastically deformed.
|
