Abstract: A method of providing a therapeutic, diagnostic or lubricious hydrophilic coating on an intracorporeal medical device and the coated device produced thereby, wherein the coating is durable. In one embodiment, the coating comprises a polymerized base coat and a therapeutic, diagnostic or hydrophilic top coat, where the base coat has a binding component which binds to the top coat, and a grafting component which binds to the binding component and adheres to the device. In another embodiment, the coating comprises a blend of a hydrophilic compound, a grafting component, and salt, wherein the polymerized grafting component contains uncrosslinked domains. The coating of the invention may be applied to a medical device with a polymeric surface such as a polymeric catheter, or a metal device coated with a polymeric primer or without a primer, or to a stent.

Abstract: Percutaneous treatment of aortic aneurysms and like vascular anomalies by an apparatus and method wherein the apparatus is delivered via catheter and comprises a sleeve with at least one peripheral conduit which is caused to assume an expanded, rigid configuration by the introduction of a chemical or mechanical hardening means, whereby the sleeve is caused to assume an open cylindrical configuration for fluid flow therethrough.

Abstract: The device of the present invention comprises a bifurcated graft fabricated from expanded PTFE (ePTFE). The inventive device is double walled so that following insertion into an aneurysm, fluid can be injected between the walls to expand the device thereby opening the inner tubular graft for receiving blood flow and locking the device into place in the aorta. The injected fluid may polymerize so that the device is permanently held in its expanded form. One embodiment of the device is fabricated with pockets or channels. After the device is delivered and expanded additional stiffening struts can be inserted into these pockets. In this way the basic device can be furled and tightly compressed for delivery (something not possible with a stent containing device). After the device is expanded, a stent-like structure can be inserted endovascularly giving the strength and resiliency of a stent-containing prosthesis.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for making an anastomotic connection between tubular fluid conduits in a patient. A connector may provided having an annular structure configured for placement partially within one of the tubular fluid conduits and for annular enlargement by expansion of an expandable structure positioned within an interior portion of the connector. The connector may be configured for plastic annular enlargement, and have members with free end portions that are configured to penetrate a wall of the tubular fluid conduits at locations that are annularly spaced around the connection. A portion of the connector may be selectively deflected radially out from a remainder of the connector in response to expansion of the expandable structure disposed inside the connector.

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.