Auxetic stents with increased flexibility

Abstract

Stents with enhanced flexibility useable for treating venous stenosis. In embodiments, a stent is configured to be auxetic, expanding axially as it is expanded radially, to prevent the imposition of tension on portions of a blood vessel adjacent to the stented portion of the blood vessel, and thereby prevent a narrowing of the adjacent portions and improving luminal gain. The stent may be fabricated from a plurality of cells, with a subset of the cells omitting cross members, thereby increasing the stent's flexibility to allow the stent to be curved to conform to vessel curvature.

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