Patent ID: 8105622

Claim:
A method to seal a lumen or void in a body of a patient comprising: placing a sterilized pharmaceutically acceptable covalently crosslinked hydrogel polymerized from at least one synthetic hydrophilic polyethylene glycol macromer into the lumen or void, wherein the hydrogel has a substantially less than equilibrium level of hydration for undergoing a volumetric expansion of at least about 50% after swelling with physiological fluid and, after implantation, swells from exposure to a fluid from the body to press against tissue surrounding the lumen or void to seal and thereby occlude the lumen or void, wherein the hydrogel, at the substantially less than equilibrium level of hydration, has a shape selected from the group consisting of a rod and a sheet rolled from one edge to another to form a roll, with the rod or roll outer diameter being no more than 1.5 mm.