Method for retaining a vascular stent on a catheter

1. A method of mounting a stent on a balloon catheter, comprising:

applying a drug coating to the stent;

positioning the stent on a balloon of the balloon catheter to create an assembly, wherein the stent includes an open-walled body formed from struts with gaps;

placing the stent and balloon catheter assembly into one half of complementary halves of a split mold, and closing the halves to enclose the assembly therein;

applying a first radially compressive force via the split mold on an outer surface of the stent, thereby decreasing the outer diameter of the stent on the balloon catheter;

pressurizing and heating the balloon while restricting radial expansion of the outer surface of the stent such that an outer surface of the expanding balloon embeds into the stent gaps; and

applying a second radially compressive force via the split mold on the outer surface of the stent.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pressurizing and heating of the balloon is performed in a mold configured to restrict the radial expansion of the outer surface of the stent.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the stent is a drug delivery stent and mounting the stent on the balloon without damaging the drug delivery layer of the stent, includes heating the balloon by heating the mold by contacting a surface of the mold with a conductive heating element member which heats the mold purely by conduction and which provides temperature control to the mold with a tolerance of about ±1 degree to about ±2 degrees F.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein heating the mold includes submerging the mold in a liquid bath.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein heating the mold includes contacting a surface of the mold with a conductive heating element member.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the radially compressive forces is applied by a crimping apparatus.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the radially compressive forces is applied by a hand tool.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the radially compressive forces is applied by hand.

9. A method of mounting a stent on a balloon catheter, comprising:

applying a drug coating to the stent;

positioning a stent on a balloon catheter to form an assembly, the balloon catheter having an elongated shaft with an inflation lumen and a guidewire lumen and an inflatable balloon on a distal shaft section with an interior in fluid communication with the inflation lumen, and the stent having an open-walled body of stent struts with gaps between adjacent stent struts;

placing the stent and balloon catheter assembly into one half of complementary halves of a split mold having a polished interior bore, and closing the halves to enclose the assembly therein;

applying a first radially compressive force via the split mold on an outer surface of the stent and thereby decreasing the outer diameter of the stent on the balloon catheter;

heating the balloon and introducing inflation media into the interior of the balloon to radially expand the balloon with the stent restrained from radially expanding, wherein the balloon expands into the stent gaps to embed the stent in an outer surface of the balloon;

removing the inflation media from the balloon interior; and

applying a second radially compressive force via the split mold on an outer surface of the stent, thereby decreasing the outer diameter of the stent on the balloon catheter.

10. The method of claim 9 , further including sterilizing the stent mounted on the balloon catheter.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein at least one of the radially compressive forces is applied by a crimping apparatus.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein at least one of the radially compressive forces is applied by a hand tool.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein at least one of the radially compressive forces is applied by hand.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the stent is restrained from radially expanding by a mold.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the mold is a split mold and the balloon catheter with the stent mounted thereon is removed from the split mold by opening of the split mold.

16. The method of claim 9 , further including sterilization of the balloon catheter and stent with ethylene oxide.

17. A method of increasing retention of an intravascular device having a drug coating and having an open-walled body defined by struts and gaps on a balloon catheter, comprising:

a first stage of crimping the intravascular device onto a balloon of the balloon catheter to form an assembly, and placing the intravascular device and balloon catheter assembly into one half of complementary halves of a split mold, and closing the halves to enclose the assembly therein;

a second stage of heating and pressurizing the balloon while restricting radial expansion of an outer surface of the intravascular device via the split mold, wherein the balloon expands into the stent gaps to embed the stent in an outer surface of the balloon; and

a third stage of re-crimping the intravascular device onto the balloon of the balloon catheter via the split mold.

18. The method of claim 17 , further including heating the intravascular device and the balloon catheter during the third stage.

19. The method of claim 17 , further including pressurizing the balloon catheter during the third stage.