Sintered structures for vascular graft
OwnerJamie Hendersoninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The vascular graft is for implantation within a body and has a PTFE tube structure including a length and inner and outer wall surfaces. The tube structure has a non-expanded portion formed from sintering a PTFE green tube extrudate and an expanded portion formed subsequent to the sintering. The expanded and non-expanded portions are of the same extrudate. The expanded portion has a region which adjoins the non-expanded portion wherein a degree of expansion of the region is limited by the non-expanded portion. The limiting of the expansion by the non-expanded portion is attenuated at a location of the region which is remote from the non-expanded portion. A method for making the vascular graft facilitates the formation of the non-expanded and expanded portions of the PTFE tube structure.
Claims25
A vascular graft for implantation within a body, said vascular graft comprising
- a PTFE tube structure having a length and inner and outer wall surfaces,
- said tube structure having a non-expanded portion formed from sintering a PTFE green tube extrudate and an expanded portion formed subsequent to the sintering,
- said expanded and non-expanded portions being of the same extrudate,
- said expanded portion having a region which adjoins said non-expanded portion wherein a degree of expansion of said region is limited by said non-expanded portion, said limiting of said expansion by said non-expanded portion being attenuated at a location of said region which is remote from said non-expanded portion.
A method for making a vascular graft comprising:
- providing a PTFE green tube extrudate which is un-sintered;
- pre-sintering a section of the extrudate to produce a pre-sintered portion such that a section of the extrudate is unsintered to constitute an unsintered portion;
- expanding the unsintered portion, said expansion of the region of the unsintered portion which adjoins the non-expanded portion being limited by the non-expanded portion, the limiting of said expansion by the non-expanded portion being attenuated in a region of the extrudate which is remote from the non-expanded portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.