Patent ID: 8287582

Claim:
A method of loading a self-expanding stent into a delivery sheath, comprising: i) providing said stent as a covered stent having a stent matrix with surfaces defining luminal and abluminal envelopes spaced apart by a stent wall thickness, a covering material bonded to the matrix lying radially inside the luminal envelope; ii) providing a stent pusher in a lumen defined by the stent, the stent pusher having protrusions distributed along the length of the stent lumen; iii) compressing the stent radially inwardly until the protrusions deform the covering material but do not reach radially outwardly as far as the luminal envelope; and iv) imposing an endwise force on the stent pusher so that the covering material transfers the pushing force from the protrusions of the stent pusher to the stent matrix to advance the stent into the sheath.