Patent ID: 8128679

Claim:
A method of stenting a bodily vessel comprising: providing a stent having a web structure defining an essentially tubular body expandable from a contracted delivery configuration to an expanded deployed configuration, a plurality of longitudinally adjacent web rings defining the web structure, and a plurality of sequentially adjoined web elements defining the web rings, the web elements being disposed substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the essentially tubular body in the contracted delivery configuration, pairs of the web elements being sequentially adjoined at a plurality of junction bends, a first junction bend in a first web ring being connected to a second junction bend in a neighboring web ring by a connector having a plurality of segments disposed one in relation to the other in step-wise configuration, the plurality of segments being joined by connecting areas, the connecting areas extending through a wall of the essentially tubular body from an exterior surface toward a lumen of the essentially tubular body, two of the connecting areas extending towards the lumen of the essentially tubular body through the wall being non-parallel to each other through the wall, at least one of the plurality of segments being disposed in a direction essentially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the essentially tubular body, the second junction bend being laterally offset from the first junction bend and being circumferentially offset from the first junction bend by three junction bends of the plurality of junction bends; disposing the stent in the contracted delivery configuration in the bodily vessel; and causing an expansion of the stent from the contracted delivery configuration to the expanded deployed configuration, the connector absorbing at least some of a torque applied on the stent by the expansion.