Patent ID: 7211109

Claim:
A medical prosthesis, including: a prosthesis structure including an interbraiding of a plurality of strands, said strands including elastically and plastically deformable structural strands formed of metal, each structural strand having a nominal shape when in a relaxed state under no external stress and being elastically deformable away from the nominal shape, each structural strand further being adapted to be altered to acquire a selected nominal shape different from an original nominal shape in response to a controlled plastic deformation treatment prior to interbraiding, wherein the structural strands when in their selected nominal shapes form windings having tubular profiles; wherein the structural strands are so altered to their selected nominal shapes forming windings having tubular profiles, and further have selected orientations within the prosthesis structure to impart to the prosthesis structure a tubular predetermined nominal configuration corresponding to said tubular profiles; wherein the strands of said interbraiding further include a plurality of textile strands more compliant than the structural strands, interbraided with the structural strands, supported by the structural strands, occupying interstices between adjacent structural strands, and cooperating to form a textile sheeting; and wherein said textile strands are multifilament yarns formed of a material selected from the group consisting of: PET, polypropylene, polyurethane, polycarbonate urethane, HDPE, polyethylene, silicone, PTFE, ePTFE, and polyolefin.