Patent ID: 6312460
Filing Date: 2001-11-06
Classification: A61F

Abstract:
A wall structure for a tubular member that is deliverable to the site of a lesion within a tubular vessel of the body, the tubular member having a smaller nondeployed perimeter and capable of undergoing an expansion deformation to a larger deployed perimeter and being implanted within the tubular vessel in order to hold the wall of the tubular vessel outward, said wall structure comprised of;A. nodes and struts with each of said struts extending between two of said nodes, said struts being able to flex elastically in a radial direction and pivot with respect to said nodes but not flex substantially in a uniform curved surface of the tubular member, said struts having a strut radial dimension that is less than a strut width,B. each of said nodes having at least one hinge that is adapted to bend in the uniform curved surface of the tubular member but not substantially radially, said hinges having a hinge radial dimension that is greater than both a hinge width and the strut radial dimension, the hinge length being adjusted to control the focus of deformation of said hinge during the expansion deformation.