Patent ID: 6860899

Claim:
A method of treating a lesion at a neurovascular target vessel site, comprising guiding a neuro-interventional catheter to the neurovascular target vessel site, advancing trough 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, said stent being formed of a coiled ribbon, the ribbon having a length wherein the length extends from one end of the ribbon to the other end of the ribbon, wherein the entirety of the stent forms a single conduit, the stent having a length, having a downstream end and an upstream end, being self-expanding and having a bending-stiffness gradient along its length due to one or more of the following: (i) a gradient of ribbon width, wherein, when the ribbon is uncoiled completely, there is straight center-line axis defined by the ribbon along the entire length of the ribbon; and (ii) a gradient of size or number of openings formed in the stent ribbon, 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; wherein said guiding includes engaging a pusher wire with the stent, pushing the stent through the catheter with the pusher wire, and expelling the stent from the catheter at the target site, with stent radial expansion at the target site being effective to release the stent from the pusher wire.