Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Vascular Therapies Div.
  • Patent number: 6267834
    Abstract: A method for improving the radial enlargeability and other properties of tape-reinforced tubular vascular graft formed of sintered fluoropolymer(s), such as expanded, sintered PTFE. Broadly, the method comprises the step of radially shrinking the reinforcement tape layer of the graft, or the entire tape-reinforced graft, after sintering thereof. Such radial shrinkage of the reinforcement tape layer, or of the entire graft, renders the graft subsequently radially enlargeable by more than 5%, without tearing or breaking of the reinforcement tape layer of the graft. Radially enlargeable grafts of the present invention may be combined with various types of stents or anchoring systems, to form endovascular graft devices which are transluminally insertable and implantable within the lumen of a host blood vessel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 1998
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2001
    Assignee: Edwards Lifesciences Corp.
    Inventors: Donald Shannon, John McIntyre, Chris Kuo, Chris McCollam, Robert Peterson