Porous catheter balloon and method of making same

A catheter balloon having a plurality of pores disposed across an outer surface, the pores having an inner diameter at an inner surface of the balloon and an outer diameter at an outer surface of the balloon, where the outer diameter is approximately one half of the inner diameter.

A method for forming pores in a tubular structure of a catheter comprising:

• providing a plurality of projectiles having a diameter of approximately 80% to 120% of a desired pore size for the tubular structure;
• and
• shooting the projectiles through a surface of the tubular structure at a speed to pass the projectiles from one side of the balloon surface to an opposite surface to form holes in the tubular structure.

A method for forming pores in a tubular structure of a catheter comprising:

• introducing into a material used to form the tubular structure impurities that can be removed from the tubular structure after the tubular structure has been formed;
• forming the tubular structure using the material with the impurities, and allowing the material to set;
• removing the impurities after the material has set to leave pores in the material of a size corresponding to the impurities removed from the material.