Patent ID: 7144422

Claim:
A drug-eluting stent delivery system for controlled release of therapeutic drugs and for delivery of the therapeutic drugs in localized drug therapy in a blood vessel, comprising: a pattern of struts interconnected to form a structure capable of contacting the walls of a body lumen to maintain the patency of the vessel, wherein a polymeric sleeve, fabricated as a prepatterned tube comprising polymer elements, is loaded with at least one therapeutic drug for the release thereof at a treatment site, the polymeric sleeve being attached to at least a portion of an outside surface area of the stent structure and wherein the prepatterning enables the detachment of the polymer elements upon stent expansion, wherein the polymeric sleeve includes a plurality of four-sided, filament strands attached to the surface of the stent, and wherein a barrier coating layer is disposed on three sides of the plurality of four-sided filament strands to enable drug elution along the fourth side.