SINTERED RING SUPPORTED VASCULAR GRAFT

摘要

The vascular graft (20) includes a PTFE tube (22) having non-expanded portions
(25) formed from sintering a PTFE green tube extrudate. The non-expanded
portions (25) are distributed longitudinally along the PTFE tube. The PTFE
tube (20) also has expanded portions (27) formed subsequent to the sintering
of the PTFE green tube extrudate. The expanded and non~expanded portions (25,
27) are integral with one another, and alternate with one another along the
length of the PTFE tube (22). The expanded and non-expanded portions (25, 27)
each have a respective stiffness, where the stiffness of the non-expanded
portion (25) is greater than that of the expanded portion (27).