Patent ID: 8500625

Claim:
A surgical kit for treating urinary incontinence in a man, comprising: at least one elongate strip for supporting under tension a urethra of a patient, said strip including a longitudinal mid-portion for extending transversely under the urethra when said strip is implanted, wherein said mid-portion is made of a knit of yarns that form an open mesh trellis having empty spaces between the knit yarns, said knit also including reinforcement constituted by at least two spaced longitudinal knitted chains wherein one of the longitudinal knitted chains is closer to an anterior side edge of said mid-portion than a longitudinal centerline of said strip and another of the longitudinal knitted chains is closer to a posterior side edge of said mid-portion than the longitudinal centerline of said strip, said open mesh trellis interconnecting by knitting said at least two longitudinal knitted chains transversely so that said at least two longitudinal knitted chains are attached to said open mesh trellis, said at least two longitudinal knitted chains being more tightly knitted than said open mesh trellis so as to be substantially non-elastically extensible along a longitudinal length thereof whereby the knit is flexible but substantially non-elastic in a longitudinal direction thereof, and suture means adapted to be connected to each of said at least two longitudially knitted chains by introducing a segment of each of said suture means into one of the empty spaces of said trellis and making a loop around the longitudinal knitted chain which loop is adapted to retain a portion of anatomical tissue under the urethra so as to join said at least two longitudinal knitted chains of said mid-portion with the anatomical tissue at at least two connection spots that are respectively located in anterior and posterior lateral parts of said mid-portion and that are in alignment in a direction that is substantially perpendicular to the centerline of said strip when the at least one elongated strip is implanted.