A plaque tack can be used for holding plaque against blood vessel walls such as in treating atherosclerotic occlusive disease. The plaque tack can be formed as a thin, annular band for holding loose plaque under a spring or other expansion force against a blood vessel wall. Focal elevating elements and/or other features, such as anchors, can be used to exert a holding force on a plaque position while minimizing the amount of material surface area in contact with the plaque or blood vessel wall and reducing the potential of friction with the endoluminal surface. This approach offers clinicians the ability to perform a minimally invasive post-angioplasty treatment and produce a stent-like result without using a stent.

This invention is a system for the treatment of body passageways; in particular, vessels with vascular disease. The system includes an endovascular graft with a low-profile delivery configuration and a deployed configuration in which it conforms to the morphology of the vessel or body passageway to be treated as well as various connector members and stents. The graft is made from an inflatable graft body section and may be bifurcated. One or more inflatable cuffs may be disposed at either end of the graft body section. At least one inflatable channel is disposed between and in fluid communication with the inflatable cuffs.

A stent includes a strut formed into a cylindrical shape and extending in an axial direction. The strut includes outer peripheral portions extending around the axial and circumferential directions of the cylindrical shape. The outer peripheral portions are spaced apart from one another with gaps formed between adjacent outer peripheral portions. The strut includes a connection portion connecting the outer peripheral portions to each other in one of the gaps formed by the adjacent outer peripheral portions. The outer peripheral portions and the connection portion of the strut are integrally formed of a biodegradable polymer A portion of the strut includes a fragile portion which is snore fragile than other portions of the strut.

A prosthesis is disclosed for placement at an Os opening from a main body lumen to a branch body lumen. The prosthesis includes a radially expansible support at one end, a circumferentially extending link at the other end and at least one frond extending axially therebetween. The support is configured to be deployed in the branch body lumen, with the circumferentially extending link in the main lumen and the frond extendable across the Os.

A stent is configured so that the length during expansion is unlikely reduced and has satisfactory flexibility so as to be able to pass through a biological lumen. In the stent, the number of mountains in a first annular portion and the number of mountains in a second annular portion between the first link portions adjacent to each other in a circumferential direction differ from each other. The first link portions are positioned on a first line parallel to an axial direction and the second link portions are positioned on a second line parallel to the axial direction, in a state where a plurality of annular reference bodies are repeatedly arranged in the axial direction.

Devices that can be delivered into a vascular system to divert flow are disclosed herein. According to some embodiments, devices are provided for treating aneurysms by diverting flow. An expandable device can comprise, for example, a plurality of connector sections and a plurality of bridge sections. Each of the connector sections may extend circumferentially about the expandable device and include a plurality of connector struts. Each of the plurality of bridge sections may be attached to and extend between two of the connector sections and comprise a plurality of parallel, non-branching, helical bridge members.

A stent able to minimize occurrences of strain and stress concentration in a drug coat layer upon expansive deformation of the stent in a radial direction to avoid the possibility of the drug separating from the stent, includes a stent body and a drug coating layer coated on the outside surface of the stent body so that the thickness of the drug coating layer gradually decreases toward a bent portion of the stent.

Delivery systems are disclosed for bioresorbable scaffolds that decrease in length when expanded to a deployment diameter that allow accurate positioning of the scaffold at a lesion. The scaffolds are mounted on a catheter that includes marker bands that are positioned interior to the proximal and distal edges of the crimped scaffold to anticipate the shortening of the scaffold upon deployment. Delivery systems are further disclosed for bioresorbable scaffolds that increase in length when expanded to a deployment diameter that allow accurate positioning of the scaffold at a lesion. The scaffolds are mounted on a catheter that includes marker bands that are positioned exterior to the proximal and distal edges of the crimped scaffold to anticipate the lengthening of the scaffold upon deployment.

A stent/graft assembly includes a tubular graft connected in substantially end-to-end relationship with a generally tubular stent. Free ends of the stent and graft extend in opposite directions from the end-to-end connection during a pre-deployment orientation of the assembly. However, the graft is inverted during deployment so that free ends of the graft and the stent extend in substantially the same direction from the end-to-end connection in a post-deployment orientation. Thus, at least a portion of the stent is disposed within at least a portion of the graft in a post-deployment orientation of the assembly.

The present disclosure describes intraluminal support devices having high radial stiffness regions with smaller diameter and low radial stiffness regions with larger diameter. When deployed to the vasculature of a patient in need of treatment, the high radial stiffness region is sized such that it has approximately the diameter of the vessel in need of treatment, so that it produces substantially zero chronic radial force when the vessel is not being subjected to external compression. The low radial stiffness regions anchor the device to the vessel wall and provide a less-abrupt transition from the high radial stiffness structure. Methods of making and using such devices are also described.