Patent ID: 8083788

Claim:
An apparatus for delivering a prosthesis into a target vessel of a patient's body, said apparatus comprising: a flexible catheter shaft having a distal end disposed in the target vessel and a proximal end disposed outside the body; an expandable member disposed near the distal end of the catheter shaft, the expandable member being movable from a contracted configuration to an expanded configuration; a tubular prosthesis axially positionable over and in contact with the expandable member, the prosthesis having an unexpanded configuration and being radially expandable to a deployed configuration for deployment in the target vessel, wherein the unexpanded tubular prosthesis is slidably disposed on the catheter shaft near the distal end of the catheter, and wherein the unexpanded prosthesis is selectively movable in an axial direction over the expandable member with a mechanism controllable from the proximal end of the catheter shaft; and a stop member axially fixed relative to the catheter shaft near the distal end thereof, wherein the stop member inhibits axial displacement of the prosthesis distally of a deployment position along the expandable member when the prosthesis is in the unexpanded configuration, and wherein the prosthesis is expandable to the deployed configuration by the expandable member when disposed at the deployment position.