Patent ID: 8317823

Claim:
A method for plugging a bodily passageway, comprising: providing an implantable plug member suitable for delivery to the bodily passageway, wherein the passageway is a gastroenteric fistula, the implantable plug member having a first end and a second end and including one or more sheets of a biocompatible extracellular matrix material harvested from collagenous-based mammalian tissue and processed to remove cells with the one or more sheets, prior to implantation, including adjacent layers contacting one another and providing biocompatible extracellular matrix material extending across the full width of the plug member for closing the bodily passageway with the biocompatible extracellular matrix material upon implantation, the extracellular matrix material, prior to implantation, forming an exposed outer surface of the plug member between said first end and said second end of the plug member and being effective upon implantation to stimulate angiogenesis and tissue ingrowth from adjacent native tissue such that the passageway becomes occluded with native tissue of the patient; and delivering the plug member to the bodily passageway such that the plug member provides the biocompatible extracellular matrix material extending across the bodily passageway so as to close the passageway with the biocompatible extracellular matrix material.