Gore Enterprise Holdings, Inc.

Kimberly A McCullough

Lilip Lau

Woonza M Rhee

William M Hartigan

Charles T Maroney

This invention is a medical device and a method of using it. The device is a foldable stent or stent-graft which may be percutaneously delivered with (or on) an endovascular catheter or via surgical techniques or using other suitable techniques. The expandable stent structure utilizes at least one torsional member having an undulating shape which is helically deployed to form the generally cylindrical shape used as the stent. The helical winding desirably is aligned to allow those undulating shapes in adjacent turns of the helix to be in phase. The adjacent undulating shapes may be held in phased relationship using a flexible linkage, often made of a polymeric material. The stent may be flared on at least one of its ends to promote smooth blood flow at that flare and to assure that the stent will remain in the chosen position within the body. The stent's configuration allows it to be folded or collapsed to a very small diameter prior to deployment without changing the length of the stent. The stent may be expanded with the use of an installation device such as a balloon but preferably is used as a self-expandable device.

Self-expandable helical intravascular stent and stent-graft

A device which includes at least a tubular stent member which if formed from a helically wrapped undulating member and a coupling member which extends through undulations of adjacent turns of the helically wrapped undulating member and is movable along the undulations, the device is foldable into a lumen deployable configuration and may also include a coaxially positioned graft member.

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Hayward, CA, United States of America

Kimberly A McCullough