Patent EA-004285-B1 (EA)
Title: Implant with attached element and method of making such an implant
Inventor: LOMBARDI SYLVIE
IPC: A61F2/91
Filed: 2001-08-16
Abstract: 1. A tubular implant having an axial end to which is attached a ring of spoons of a material different from that of the implant. 2. An implant as claimed in claim 1 wherein the spoons are of tantalum. 3. An implant as claimed in claim 1 wherein the implant is of stainless steel. 4. An implant as claimed in claim 1 wherein the spoons are laser-welded to the implant. 5. An implant as claimed in claim 1 wherein the implant is of nickel-titanium shape memory alloy. 6. An implant as claimed in claim 1 wherein the spoons engage with the implant with male-female complementary form-fitting portions. 7. An implant as claimed in claim 6 in which each spoon has an axial length between a first end and a second end, the first end having said form-fitting portion and said second end being arcuate in the sense that the second end presents a convex shape to its environment. 8. An implant as claimed in claim 1, which is a stent which, in use, expands from a delivery configuration to a deployed configuration having a diameter larger than that of the delivery configuration. 9. An implant as claimed in claim 8 wherein each spoon has luminal major surface and an abluminal major surface, said major surfaces being arcuate and within a cylindrical envelope which corresponds to the delivery configuration. 10. An implant as claimed in claim 9 wherein each spoon extends around slightly less one quarter of the circumference of the tube defined by the implant. 11. An implant as claimed in claim 10 wherein each of the spoons has parallel straight side edges, with each side edge relatively close to a facing side edge of the next adjacent spoon, when the implant is in the delivery configuration, and substantially further apart when the implant is in the deployed configuration. 12. An implant as claimed in claim 1 wherein the spoons are radiopaque markers. 13. An implant as claimed in claim 6 wherein the male-female complementary form-fitting portions have complementary mating surface portions which lie in a plane which includes the long axis of the tube defined by the implant, whereby the form-fitting portions of the spoons and implant respectively have a complementary tapered form fit. 14. An implant as claimed in claim 13, wherein the tapered mating surfaces on the spoon constitute the female part of the male-female fit. 15. An implant as claimed in claim 14, wherein each tapered mating surface on the implant has the barbed shape of an arrowhead. 16. A method of attaching elements to an axial end of a tubular implant comprising the steps of: i. providing said elements on one end of a support tube having a radius substantially that of the implant in its unexpanded configuration, ii. abutting the implant and elements end-to-end, iii. fixing the elements to the implant; and iv. parting the elements from the support tube. 17. An implant made of wire or sheet material arranged in the form of a metal tube (10) having a long axis, a luminal surface (28) and an abluminal surface (26), and a radial wall thickness between said surfaces, the implant carrying within the wall thickness an element (20) made of a material than the material which forms the implant characterised in that: the element and the implant have complementary tapered mating surfaces (32,30) for achieving a taper form fit of the element on to the implant.