Patent ID: 7993387

Claim:
An implantable stent comprising: a plurality of wires arranged to form a hollow tubular structure having a tubular wall to define an interior surface and an exterior surface and having opposed open first and second ends, wherein the wires terminate at said second open end and an adjacently abutting pair of wires are welded at said second open end with a welding material to provide a first weld consisting of two wires and the welding material welded together, wherein at least one of the adjacently abutting stent wires is extended past the first weld to define an extended wire and looped into an equilaterally arched loop having an apex having similar curvatures on either side of said apex, but not having other bends so that the extended wire adjacently abuts a proximal pair of parallel wires to define three substantially parallel wires, wherein the three substantially parallel wires are welded directly to each other with the welding material to provide a second weld, and further wherein at least about 25% to about 50% by weight of the welded material has been removed by selective chemical or electro-chemical polishing to reduce the profile of the first and second welds to less than a diameter of the wires.