Medical devices and applications of polyhydroxyalkanoate polymers

A method of enhancing the healing of a wound, injury, or defect in a site in a patient, comprising administering at the site a device comprising a biocompatible polyhydroxyalkanoate composition wherein the degradation rates of the polyhydroxyalkanoates is manipulated through addition of components to the polymeric composition, selection of the chemical composition, molecular weight, processing conditions, or form of the composition,

• wherein the mass loss of the polyhydroxyalkanoate, as measured by gas chromatography, is greater than 5% over a six week period in vivo, or wherein the average molecular mass of the polyhydroxyalkanoate, as measured by gel permeation chromatography, decreases 20% to 50% over a ten week period in vivo, and
• wherein the device is selected from the group consisting of sutures, suture fasteners, meniscus repair devices, rivets, tacks, staples, screws, bone plates and bone plating systems, surgical mesh, repair patches, slings, cardiovascular patches, orthopedic pins, adhesion barriers, stents, guided tissue repair/regeneration devices, articular cartilage repair devices, nerve guides, tendon repair devices, atrial septal defect repair devices, pericardial patches, bulking and filling agents, ligament and tendon grafts, ocular cell implants, spinal fusion cages, heart valves, vascular grafts, skin substitutes, dural substitutes, bone graft substitutes, bone dowels, wound dressings, and hemostats.