Patent ID: 7918881

Claim:
A method of deploying stent segments in a blood vessel having a luminal taper, the method comprising: transluminally introducing a catheter into the blood vessel, the catheter having an expandable member near a distal end thereof, the expandable member having an expansion surface; positioning a first plurality of independent stent segments over the expansion surface of the expandable member such that a first stent segment is on a proximal extremity of the expandable member and a second stent segment is on a distal extremity of the expandable member, the first and second stent segments being independently movable relative to the expandable member, and wherein the expansion surface is continuously tapered between the proximal and the distal extremities; and expanding the expandable member such that the proximal extremity has a first expanded diameter and the distal extremity has a second expanded diameter smaller than the first expanded diameter, wherein the first stent segment is expanded to a diameter larger than the second stent segment.