Sintered coatings for implantable prostheses

Abstract

A sintered coating (13) for an implantable prosthesis (10) is provided having 1) interstices into which tissue or bone can grow, and 2) increased surface roughness which provides enhanced initial press-fit fixation. In certain embodiments, the coating includes at least two sets of particles (46,48) having different mean diameters. The sizes and numbers of particles are chosen so as to produce a matrix of smaller particles (48) in which are embedded a lesser number of spaced-apart larger particles (46). The smaller particles (48) provide support for the larger particles (46), and the larger particles (46) stand proud of the smaller particles (48) to provide the enhanced surface roughness. In other embodiments, the coating includes both generally smaller spherically-shaped (SS) particles and generally larger non-spherically-shaped (NSS) particles, with the NSS particles providing enhanced surface roughness and the SS particles providing support for the NSS particles.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.