Patent ID: 6475237
Filing Date: 2002-11-05
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 state with a nondeployed perimeter and capable of undergoing an expansion deformation to a larger deployed state with a 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, B. each of said nodes having at least one hinge, said hinge having a hinge radial dimension that is greater than the strut radial dimension wherein said hinge is unable to bend substantially in the radial direction and said struts flex elastically in the radial direction upon exposure to a deformation force that changes the radius of curvature of the tubular member.