Abstract: A device consisting of a wire for occluding an aperture within a body surface, such as atrial and ventricular septal defects (and the method of using such a device). The wire comprises two configurations, an elongated configuration for passage into said body through a catheter and through the aperture, and a preprogrammed configuration including occlusion-forming wire segments, one on each side of said aperture. The wire also includes means (preferably a temperature-induced shape change) for changing the wire from the elongated configuration to the preprogrammed configuration in the body.

Abstract: There is disclosed an orthotic device adapted for use with a hand of a user to restore grasping function. The device includes a finger retaining member and thumb support. The finger retaining member is pivotally moveable from a first open or non-grasping position when the finger retaining member is spaced from the thumb support, to a second position where the two are adjacent. The device achieves this function by incorporating a suitable shape memory alloy suitably associated with the finger retaining member and thumb support.

Abstract: Improved titanium alloys for dental castings and processes for the preparation thereof, characterized by the incorporation of predetermined small amounts of one or more noble metals, preferably ruthenium, or rhenium, and optional predetermined small amounts of one or more rare earth metals, preferably cerium. The present alloys have improved corrosion and tarnish resistance under the conditions of use, and the preferred compositions including rare earth metals have improved oxidation resistance which improves their receptivity and bonding strength for enamels, porcelain surfacing materials or caps.

Abstract: Medical devices which are currently proposed to use elements made from shape memory alloys may be improved by the use of stress-induced martensite alloy elements instead. The use of stress-induced martensite decreases the temperature sensitivity of the devices, thereby making them easier to install and/or remove.

Abstract: A suture and a suturing method are set forth for suturing a wound in the tissue of a patient and defined by tissue edges. The suture comprises an alloy member having a first end portion, a second end portion, and a first undeformed shape. It is deformable into a second deformed shape. The member has the property of recovering from its second shape towards its first shape upon the second shape being subjected to specified conditions. The first shape is a suturing loop adapted to draw and hold the tissue edges defining the wound together. The second shape is adapted to allow the member to be drawn through the tissue in position for the loop to form. The method comprises inserting such a member while it is in its second shape into position for it to assume its first suturing loop shape and subjecting it to conditions which cause it to recover towards its first shape.

Abstract: A disposable fixing device serving for an external fixation of fractured small tubular bones includes rods having a generally circular cross-section and at least one flattened face and provided with a plurality of bores spaced apart and traversing the rod through the entire width thereof and a plurality of pins introduced into the fractured bone by one end thereof and connected with the respective bores of the rod by an opposite end upon sealing each of the pins to the opposite sides of the respective rod.

Abstract: A new and improved suture anchor of the sort adapted to anchor an intermediate portion of a piece of conventional suture in bone, and a new and improved installation tool for deploying the same, said installation tool being adapted to releasably hold at least one curved needle which is attached to said piece of conventional suture.

Abstract: A fixation element for securing a prosthesis in a bone, whereby the effective diameter of the fixation element can be increased by increasing the temperature of at least one element of a material which shrinks or expands when heated, such as shape memory metal, by means of an inductive magnetic field, whereby the change in shape generated with the shrinkage or expansion of the material is converted into an increase in diameter of the fixation element.