Patent ID: 8636790

Claim:
A vascular stent to be implanted in a vessel of a living body to scaffold the vessel from inside, the vascular stent comprising; a plurality of tubular-body forming elements constituting a part of a tubular body, wherein the tubular body includes three tubular-body forming elements, said tubular-body forming elements being formed by bending a strand made of a first biodegradable polymer such that a linear part and a bend part alternate in sequence; at least two connecting members made of a second biodegradable polymer, each of the at least two connecting members formed around a respective one of the tubular-body forming elements, wherein said tubular-body forming elements are combined together to form said tubular body providing a single flow channel therein from a first end to a second end, and wherein said tubular-body forming elements combined together are unified to form said single tubular body by melt-welding the at least two connecting members, wherein each of the at least two connecting members is attached to a different one of the tubular-body forming elements, and wherein the at least two connecting members are adjacent to each other.