Patent ID: 7497872

Claim:
A stent assembly, comprising: an expandable stent adapted for medical implantation, wherein said stent is compressed prior to implantation and is expanded at a site of implantation, said stent comprising a series of three receiver regions, said receiver regions being formed by open regions between three joined stent struts forming a Y-shaped junction; a graft material comprising a first surface and a second surface, said first surface and said second surface forming opposite sides of said graft material, wherein said first surface is disposed against at least a portion of said stent; a retainer longitudinally aligned with at least a portion of said stent such that said graft is directly sandwiched in a radial direction between said stent and said retainer, said retainer comprising a plurality of retention sites, each retention site comprising three retaining members projecting toward said stent, said retention sites being interconnected by angular connecting struts extending between adjacent retention sites, said retention sites thereby being located at a convergence of two of said angular connecting struts and said retaining members being integral with said angular connecting struts, said retention sites spanning a full diameter of said stent whereby said retention sites and said connecting struts form a band of retainers around said stent; and said graft material being secured between said receiver regions of said stent and said retaining members of said retainer, said retainer being oriented relative to said stent to facilitate interlocking engagement between said retaining members and said receiver regions without perforating said graft material, wherein two of said retaining members at said retention sites are located on opposite circumferential sides of one of said three joined stent struts and one of said retaining members at said retention sites is axially displaced from said two retaining members.