STENT GRAFT HAVING BARB SUTURED TO STENT AND GRAFT.

摘要

A stent 10 has wrapped therearound a barb element 12 formed of a length of wire provided with first and second ends 14,16 forming barb prongs. In intermediate zone 22, the barb element 12 is wrapped or coiled. The two pronged ends 14, 16 extend out of the graft element (26, fig 2) to provide an anchoring function to the medical device. As well as being wrapped onto a strut of the stent 10, the barb element 12 is sutured to the stent 10 and to the graft material (26, fig 2) by suture stitching (28, fig 2). The turns of the coiling or wrapping in section 22 assist in fixing the barb element 12 relative to the suture (28, fig 2) and thus to the stent graft (24, fig 2). The barb elements 12 could be made of any suitable material, including Nitinol. This structure of barb elements provides an effective arrangement which is easy to manufacture, which provides strong barbs able to withstand the high processing temperatures required for setting shape memory elements of the device.