Patent ID: 7052513

Claim:
A prosthesis, including: a three-dimensionally braided structure including a plurality of structural strands and a plurality of textile strands interbraided with the structural strands and being more compliant than the structural strands, wherein the structural strands are formed of a structural material and have respective nominal shapes when in a relaxed state under no external stress and are elastically deformable away from their respective nominal shapes, wherein each of the structural strands further is adapted to be altered to acquire a selected nominal shape different from an original nominal shape; wherein only the structural stands are so altered, and in their respective selected nominal shapes form windings about a longitudinal axis with tubular profiles, and further are oriented within the braided structure to impart to the braided structure a tubular predetermined nominal shape corresponding to said tubular profiles; wherein each of the structural strands is adapted to be so altered according to a selective thermal setting including heating at least to a heat set temperature while maintaining the structural strand in the selected nominal shape, and the structural strands are susceptible to said selective thermal setting only when heated at least to a heat set temperature; and wherein the textile strands have a melting temperature and tend to conform to the predetermined nominal shape imparted by the structural strands, and the heat set temperature is higher than the melting temperature.