Patent ID: 7326240
Filing Date: 2008-02-05
Classification: A61B,A61F

Abstract:
1. A stent for insertion into a vessel, which stent includes a supporting portion around which part of an intact vessel other than a graft can be placed, so that the stent internally supports an interior wall of that vessel part, wherein the supporting portion comprises a hollow tube, the walls of which have openings therein so that when the stent is inserted in a vessel the interior wall of the vessel is exposed via said openings to fluid flow along the vessel, and wherein the supporting portion of the stent, when in the vessel, has a non-planar, at least partially helical shape wherein a central axis of the hollow tube forms a non-planar three-dimensional at least partially helical shape and the hollow tube is capable of imposing said three-dimensional at least partially helical shape on a central axis of the vessel, whereby fluid flow within the stent supported part of the vessel follows the three-dimensional at least partially helical shape to induce swirl flow.