Patent ID: 6997948

Claim:
A prosthesis formed according to a process including: braiding a plurality of elongate filaments composed of a bioabsorbable material on a first mandrel to form a tubular, radially compressible prosthesis structure having a first diameter; disposing the prosthesis structure on a second mandrel having a second diameter less than the first diameter; and while the prosthesis structure is so disposed, annealing the prosthesis structure at a temperature between a glass transition temperature of the bioabsorbable material and a melting temperature of the bioabsorbable material, to form an annealed prosthesis structure having an annealed diameter D when in a free state less than the first diameter of the prosthesis structure before said annealing, the annealed prosthesis structure further being radially compressible to reduced diameters less than the annealed diameter D and radially self-expandable from the reduced diameters; wherein the annealed prosthesis structure consists essentially of the elongate filaments.