Stents are placed or implanted within a variety of bodily vessels including in coronary arteries, renal arteries, peripheral arteries including illiac arteries, arteries of the neck and cerebral arteries, veins, biliary ducts, urethras, fallopian tubes, bronchial tubes, the trachea, the esophagus and the prostate.
Stents are available in a wide range of designs. One popular stent design includes a plurality of serpentine rings having alternating peaks and troughs. Adjacent rings are interconnected via connecting elements. If adjacent rings are spaced too close together, however, binding, overlapping or interference can occur between adjacent rings on the inside of a bend due to the facing peaks and troughs moving toward each other and into contact.
There remains a need for innovative, flexible stents which are designed so that interference between adjacent rings does not substantially occur.
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.
All U.S. patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.