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US 7,923,512 B2Granted
Process for producing medical implant or medical implant part comprising porous UHMWPE
AssigneeDePuy Products, Inc.
InventorsRichard S. King, Mark D. Hanes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The invention provides a medical implant or medical implant part comprising porous ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene having a weight average molecular weight of about 400,000 atomic mass units or more and a porosity of about 15% to about 65%. The invention further provides a process for producing a medical implant or medical implant part.
Claims10
A process for producing a medical implant or medical implant part comprising porous ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene, the process comprising:
- (a) providing a compression mold for the medical implant or medical implant part having an internal volume,
- (b) providing a matrix comprising ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene, wherein the ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene has a weight average molecular weight of about 400,000 atomic mass units or more,
- (c) dispersing a porogen comprising a melt-processable polymer in the matrix to produce a mixture comprising at least one porogen and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene,
- (d) filling at least a portion of the internal volume of the compression mold with the mixture obtained in step (c),
- (e) compressing the mixture contained within the compression mold for a time and under conditions sufficient to form a medical implant or medical implant part therefrom,
- (f) removing the medical implant or medical implant part from the compression mold, and
- (g) immersing the medical implant or medical implant part obtained in step (f) in a solvent for a time and under conditions sufficient to extract at least a portion of the porogen from the medical implant or medical implant part.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.