Patent ID: 8016874

Claim:
A stent comprising: 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, each web ring including a plurality of sequentially adjoined web elements disposed substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the essentially tubular body when in the contracted delivery configuration, pairs of the plurality of sequentially adjoined web elements being sequentially adjoined at junction bends, wherein each junction bend in a first web ring of the plurality of longitudinally adjacent web rings is connected to a second junction bend in a neighboring web ring of the plurality of longitudinally adjacent web rings by a S-shaped connector having a plurality of segments disposed one in relation to the other in step-wise configuration, a central segment of the plurality of segments within the connector is disposed in a direction essentially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the essentially tubular body: and two junction bends of the junction bends connected by the S-shaped connector being laterally offset one in relation to the other with the central segment of the connector being disposed within a gap disposed between the two junction bends and radially offset from both of the two junction bends.