Patent ID: 8876883

Claim:
A structure for fixation of a stent graft to a body vessel comprising: hollow cylindrically shaped stent graft elements; an upper spring attachment element having a hollow cylindrical shape of serpentine pattern and coupled to one of said stent graft elements, said upper spring attachment element comprising: upper apexes; lower apexes; and struts interconnecting said upper apexes and said lower apexes, each of said struts having an inner strut surface facing an adjacent strut extending from a common one of the upper apexes; hooked fixation elements having hook-end portions and coupling-ends, each of said coupling-ends coupled to one of said upper apexes; wherein said upper apexes including said hook-end portions lie within a compressed stent cylinder wall space projection bounded by an interior side of said upper apexes and an exterior side of said upper apexes when said stent graft is compressed prior to deployment of said stent graft in said body vessel, said inner strut surfaces having an angle that is skewed from a radius of said hollow cylindrical shape in a plane perpendicular to a stent graft central axis; and wherein said struts twist to cause said upper apexes including said hook-end portions to rotate outwardly from an expanded stent cylinder wall space projection bounded by said interior side of said upper apexes and said exterior side of said upper apexes to act as a hook element to penetrate said body vessel when said stent graft is expanded at deployment.