Patent ID: 7520893

Claim:
A method of treating a lesion at a neurovascular target vessel site, comprising guiding a neuro-interventional catheter to the target site, advancing through the catheter a stent adapted for advancement through a catheter in an upstream to downstream direction to the target site in a contracted stent condition and with expulsion from the catheter, downstream end first, and radial expansion at the target site, to engage the walls of the vessel, and expelling the stent from the catheter at the target site, causing the stent to expand radially against the vessel walls at the target site, said stent comprising a coiled ribbon, the ribbon having: a first end which coincides with a first end of the stent, a second end which coincides with a second end of the stent, a first side edge which coincides with the first side edge of the stent and a second side edge which coincides with the second side edge of the stent, the ribbon characterized by a length and a decreasing width, the length everywhere exceeding the decreasing width, the length of the ribbon defined as the shortest distance along the ribbon from the first end of the ribbon to the second end of the ribbon and the width defined everywhere along the ribbon by the shortest distance along the ribbon between the first and second side edges of the ribbon wherein the width of the ribbon decreases, the width progressing from greater to lesser widths from the first end of the ribbon to the second end of the ribbon, the ribbon further having a plurality of openings within the ribbon, wherein the stent openings are I-beam shaped openings whose “I” axis is aligned transversely to the longitudinal axis of the stent in the contracted state, or Z-shaped openings whose central axis is aligned transversely to the longitudinal axis of the stent in the contracted state.