FLEXIBLE EXPANDABLE STENT AND METHODS OF DEPLOYMENT

摘要

A flexible, expandable stent assembly comprises a pattern of interconnected struts along a curvilinear path. The struts define a cylindrically shaped channel that extends along a longitudinal axis. The channel has a plurality of openings. The struts comprise a plurality of circumferential arrays of webs or bends. Each circumferential array is connected to an adjacent circumferential array by fewer than four cross-links. Each cross-link extending from a first side of a circumferential array of the plurality of circumferential arrays is substantially circumferentially offset from every cross-link extending from an opposite side of the same circumferential array. Each of the struts has, in a cross-section generally normal to the curvilinear path of the strut and normal to a center of curvature of the channel, a strut surface width that is at least one and a half times that of a strut surface height of the strut.