Appliance collapsible for insertion into a human organ and capable of resilient restoration

Abstract

An artificial blood vessel A comprises a pair of discrete end wire rings , a tubular cover made of a sheet of flexible, tensile material which connects the end wire rings , and a plurality of intermediate wire rings arranged spaced apart between the end wire rings and circumferentially fixed to the cover by suturing or with adhesive. All of the rings are located on the outside of the cover. To implant the vessel A via a catheter, a plurality of dividing points which bisect the circumference of the front end wire ring are pulled forward while the movement of the midpoints between the dividing points following the movement of the dividing points is restrained by the projections on a tapered surface of a funneled tube so as to fold the front end wire ring into a wavy shape, with the dividing points forming forwardly directed peaks and the midpoints forming the bottoms of forwardly directed valleys. The dividing points of the front wire ring are pulled farther forward so as to fold the intermediate wire rings and the rear end wire ring into a regular wavy shape having the same phase as that of the front wire ring by the effect of restraint by the tapered surface and the projections thereby to collapse the artificial blood vessel A as a whole into a small size for passage through the catheter. Upon release of the artificial vessel from the catheter at the affected portion of the blood vessel, the artificial vessel is restored to its original shape. The end wire rings, the cover, and the intermediate wire rings alone keep the shape of the artificial vessel.