BRAIDED BRANCHING STENT, METHOD FOR TREATING A LUMEN THEREWITH, AND PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURE THEREOF

摘要

A bifurcated, braided stent has a body that branches into a plurality of leg s and is adapted for deployment in a lumen. At least a portion of each leg of the stent comprises a discrete plurality of continuous filaments braided together, and at least a portion of the body comprises one or more of the continuous filaments from each of the legs braided together. The stent can b e used for treating a diseased bifurcated lumen of the human being by deployin g the stent therein. The stent can be constructed by a process comprising braiding each plurality of filaments to form the leg sections, and braiding one or more filaments from each plurality of filaments together to form the body. The process may be performed by creating the legs first and then the body, or vice versa. The stent may be constructed on a mandrel using a singl e braiding machine or multiple braiding machines.