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Asymmetric bifurcated crown

This application is a continuation application of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/288,621 filed Nov. 5, 2002 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,326,242, the entire contents of which are hereby expressly incorporated by reference.

Not Applicable

Stents, grafts, stent-grafts, vena cava filters and similar implantable medical devices, collectively referred to hereinafter as stents, are radially expandable endoprostheses which are typically intravascular implants capable of being implanted transluminally and enlarged radially after being introduced percutaneously. Stents may be implanted in a variety of body lumens or vessels such as within the vascular system, urinary tracts, bile ducts, fallopian tubes, coronary vessels, secondary vessels, etc. Stents may be used to reinforce body vessels and to prevent restenosis following angioplasty in the vascular system. They may be self-expanding, expanded by an internal radial force, such as when mounted on a balloon, or a combination of self-expanding and balloon expandable.

Within the vasculature it is not uncommon for stenoses to form at a vessel bifurcation. A bifurcation is an area of the vasculature or other portion of the body where a first (or parent) vessel is bifurcated into two or more tubular component vessels. Where a stenotic lesion or lesions form at such a bifurcation, the lesion(s) can affect only one of the vessels (i.e., either of the tubular component vessels or the parent vessel) two of the vessels, or all three vessels.

Many of the bifurcated stents that have been disclosed are deployed by two balloons. A first balloon expands the main section of the stent and a second balloon expands the branch.

In spite of the many bifurcated stents that have been disclosed, there remains a need for innovative bifurcated stents which may be deployed using a single balloon for the main section and an alternate mechanism for the side branch. There also remains a need for bifurcated stents with innovative designs in the region of the bifurcation to provide adequate coverage of the carina.

All US patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Without limiting the scope of the invention, a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.

A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification is provided as well for the purposes of complying with 37 C.F.R. 1.72.

In one embodiment, the invention is directed to an expandable stent having a tubular structure which is disposed about a first longitudinal axis and a plurality of fingers which, upon expansion of the stent, extend from the tubular structure about a second longitudinal axis. The second longitudinal axis is angularly offset from the first longitudinal axis. At least one of the plurality of fingers has a length that is greater than that of the other fingers. In the unexpanded state the fingers may lie substantially on the surface of the stent.

Desirably, the fingers are disposed about an opening of the stent. The fingers and the opening define a crown.

Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a stent with a crown having fingers in which one portion of the crown has fingers that have a shorter average length than the average length of fingers on another portion of the crown.

Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a stent with a crown having fingers in which the proximal portion of the crown has fingers with a longer average length than the average length of fingers on the distal portion of the crown.

Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a stent with a crown having fingers in which the proximal portion of the crown has fingers with a shorter average length than the average length of fingers on the proximal portion of the crown.

Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a stent in an unexpanded condition with a crown. The fingers on a more distal portion of the crown extend proximally in such a way that a portion of at least one finger on the distal portion is proximal to a portion of at least one finger on the proximal portion of the crown which extend distally such that the fingers overlap one another. Another embodiment is directed to fingers that are interlaced with one another.

Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a stent with a crown having fingers with a length between 10.0 and 0.5 mm; desirably between 7.0 and 1.0 mm; and more desirably between 5.5 and 1.5 mm.

Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a stent with a crown having fingers in which the fingers have varying lengths.

Another embodiment is directed to a stent with a crown that begins opening into the secondary lumen before the main body of the stent is fully deployed.