Braced Stent Bridge Structure for Buckling-Resistant Deployment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Longer stents used for treating longer lesions or regions face challenges such as buckling and inaccurate deployment due to lack of structural support and rigidity, particularly during loading onto and deployment from a delivery system.
Innovation Solution
The stent design incorporates a plurality of radially expandable rings interconnected with bridges, featuring brace elements that provide additional support and rigidity by engaging with adjacent bridges, reducing the likelihood of buckling during loading and deployment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If longer stents are used to treat longer lesions, then the treatment coverage is improved, but the stent becomes more prone to buckling and deformation during loading and deployment
Solution Approach 1:
The stent is divided into multiple repeating units, each comprising a ring structure with interconnected struts. This segmentation allows the long stent to maintain structural integrity through modular repetition, where each unit provides local rigidity while the overall structure achieves the required length for treating extensive lesions.
Solution Approach 2:
The stent employs a composite architectural design combining rigid struts forming rings with flexible bridge elements connecting adjacent rings. This composite structure integrates rigid components (struts and rings) that provide buckling resistance with flexible components (bridges) that allow controlled deformation during deployment, resolving the contradiction between length and structural stability.
2Strength
If the stent diameter is increased to provide greater radial strength, then the radial support capability is improved, but the deployment force required increases and buckling risk during loading increases
Solution Approach 1:
The stent structure transitions from a rigid configuration during loading to a more compliant configuration during deployment. The bridge elements are designed to flex and rotate, allowing the stent to deform dynamically during the loading and deployment processes, thereby reducing the peak forces required while maintaining the final radial strength.
Solution Approach 2:
The stent employs curved bridge elements connecting adjacent rings at angled orientations rather than straight connections. This curvature and angular arrangement creates a more efficient load distribution pattern, allowing the structure to achieve greater radial strength with reduced deployment forces by utilizing geometric leverage and distributed stress paths.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the stent is made more rigid to prevent buckling, then the structural support is improved, but the ability to navigate through the delivery catheter and conform to vessel anatomy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
By dividing the stent into discrete rings connected by flexible bridges, the structure achieves rigidity at the local level (within each ring) while maintaining flexibility at the global level (between rings). This segmentation allows the stent to resist buckling locally while adapting its overall shape to conform to the delivery catheter and vessel anatomy.
Solution Approach 2:
Different parts of the stent structure serve different functional qualities: the rings and struts provide local rigidity and radial strength where needed, while the bridge elements provide local flexibility and rotatability to enable navigation and conformability. This local differentiation of structural qualities resolves the contradiction between rigidity and adaptability.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates to a stent comprising: a plurality of radially expandable rings each having a contracted configuration suitable for delivery and a radially expanded configuration for engaging and supporting tissue, wherein each ring is formed from a plurality of interconnected struts, adjacent struts in each ring being connected together with a connector, and each ring having a proximal end, and a distal end, wherein the plurality of rings is coaxially aligned with one another to form a longitudinal axis, wherein a distal end of one ring faces a proximal end of an adjacent ring; and a plurality of bridges disposed between adjacent rings, the plurality of bridges coupling adjacent rings together, wherein one or more of the bridges comprise a first end, a second end, and a first brace element therebetween, wherein the first end of the bridge is coupled with the distal end of a first ring at a first connection point, and the second end of the bridge is coupled with the proximal end of an adjacent second ring at a second connection point, the plurality of brace elements aligned in single column, each brace element having a serpentine shape which includes a plurality of curved portions, and wherein the first brace element of one bridge engages an adjacent bridge or a brace element of the adjacent bridge when the corresponding adjacent rings are in the contracted configuration.