The present invention is a stent delivery system that uses short section of guidewire
fixedly attached to the distal section of a balloon angioplasty catheter onto which
a stent is co-axially mounted. By not having a guidewire that slides through the
balloon of the balloon angioplasty catheter, the deflated balloon on which the
stent is mounted can have a reduced diameter. Therefore, the outer diameter of
the pre-deployed stent mounted onto that balloon is also minimized. This provides
a smaller profile, i.e., a smaller outer diameter, for the stent. The time to perform
a stent delivery procedure is reduced; a separate guidewire does not have to be
placed prior to using the stent delivery system to place the stent at the site
of a stenosis. Another embodiment of the present invention has a core wire that
extends for nearly the entire length of the stent delivery system, the guidewire
having different levels of stiffness for different portions of the core wire's length.