Patent ID: 7641836

Claim:
A method of molding a polymeric medical device comprising the steps of: providing a polymer cord having a first end and a second end, said cord comprising a plurality of flexible fibers having a textile architecture; substantially separating fibers at the one end of the cord from their textile architecture, wherein the separated fibers are both flexible and moveable; disposing one end of the cord in a die cavity; providing a thermoplastic polymer tube having an inner passage; disposing the polymer tube in the die cavity so that it substantially surrounds the fibers such that the fibers are at least in part within the inner passage; disposing a plunger in the die cavity adjacent to the tube; heating the die cavity to a temperature sufficient to effectively melt the prefabricated polymer tube; moving the plunger axially in the die cavity in the direction of the fibers to force the fibers to spread apart while forming a stopper member from the melted thermoplastic polymer tube such that the fibers are in a spread apart configuration within the stopper; and, cooling the die cavity, wherein the cord and the stopper member comprise biodegradable aliphatic polymers, copolymers, or blends formed from monomers selected from the group consisting of lactic acid, lactide, glycolic acid, glycolide, epsilon-caprolactone, 1, 4-dioxan-2-one, and (1,3-dioxan-2-one).