The invention is directed to an expandable stent (10) for implantation in a body lumen, such as an artery, and a method for making it from a single length of tubing. The stent (10) consists of a plurality of radially expandable cylindrical elements (12) generally aligned on a common axis and interconnected by one or more interconnective elements (13). The individual radially expandable cylindrical elements (12) consist of ribbon-like material disposed in an undulating pattern. The stents (10) are made by coating a length of tubing (21) with an etchant-resistive material and then selectively removing portions of the coating to form a pattern for the stent (10) on the tubing (21) to expose the portions of the tubing to be removed. This may be done by machine-controlled activation and relative positioning of a laser (24) in conjunction with the coated tubing (21). After the patterning of the tubing (21), the stent (10) is formed by removing exposed portions of the tubing (21) by an etching process.
