Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser – Synthetic resins – Mixing of two or more solid polymers; mixing of solid...
Reexamination Certificate
1994-11-01
2001-05-08
Buttner, David J. (Department: 1712)
Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser
Synthetic resins
Mixing of two or more solid polymers; mixing of solid...
C525S413000, C525S415000, C606S077000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06228954
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to glycolide and/or lactide based polymer compositions and more particularly to polymer compositions which are blends of a glycolide and/or lactide homopolymer or glycolide/lactide copolymer and polycaprolactone homopolymer and/or polytrimethylene carbonate homopolymer and/or caprolactone or trimethylene carbonate copolymer, said polymer compositions being particularly useful in the manufacture of absorbable surgical devices.
Polymers and copolymers of, and surgical devices made from, lactide and/or glycolide and/or related compounds are well-known. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,668,162, 2,683,136, 2,703,316, 2,758,987, 3,225,766, 3,268,486, 3,268,487, 3,297,033, 3,422,181, 3,442,871, 3,463,158, 3,468,853, 3,531,561, 3,565,869, 3,597,449, 3,620,218, 3,626,948, 3,636,956, 3,736,646, 3,739,773, 3,772,420, 3,773,919, 3,781,349, 3,784,585, 3,792,010, 3,797,499, 3,839,297, 3,846,382, 3,867,190, 3,875,937, 3,878,284, 3,896,802, 3,902,497, 3,937,223, 3,982,543, 4,033,938, 4,045,418, 4,057,537, 4,060,089, 4,137,921, 4,157,437, 4,243,775, 4,246,904, 4,273,920, 4,275,813, 4,279,249, 4,300,565, and 4,744,365, U.K. Pat. or Appln. Nos. 779,291, 1,332,505, 1,414,600, and 2,102,827, D. K. Gilding et al., “Biodegradable polymers for use in surgery-polyglycolic/poly (lactic acid) homo-and copolymers: 1,
” Polymer,
Volume 20, pages 1459-1464 (1979), and D. F. Williams (ed.),
Biocompatibility of Clinical Implant Materials,
Volume II, chapter 9: “Biodegradable Polymers” (1981). All of the foregoing documents are hereby incorporated by reference. Some of the foregoing documents listed mention or discuss annealing, heat-treating, or post-treating surgical articles containing the lactide/glycolide/related compound polymers or copolymers. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,422,181, 3,626,948, 3,636,956, 3,772,420, 3,792,010, 3,797,499, 3,839,297, 3,878,284, 4,137,921, 4,157,437, 4,243,775, 4,300,565, U.K. Pat. or Appln. Nos. 1,332,505, 1,414,600, and 2,102,827, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,137,921, 4,157,437, 4,243,775, and 4,300,565.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,365 it was found that certain two-phase compositions derived from lactide and glycolide in which lactide moieties predominate, have a remarkable and unexpected balance of desirable properties. Those properties include lack of brittleness and the ability to be injection molded and annealed. The properties of the composition make it possible to injection mold surgical devices (e.g., staples, clips) from the composition and to anneal those devices to obtain devices having a remarkable and unexpected balance of desirable properties. As compared to a substantially amorphous, one-phase poly(lactide/glycolide) device of a given composition, the annealed, two-phase device of the same overall composition has a much higher distortion temperature but essentially the same in vivo rate of loss of tensile strength. Thus, the compositions of U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,365 make it possible to increase the resistance to thermal distortion of poly(lactide/glycolide) surgical devices without adversely affecting their rate of loss of tensile strength. More particularly, the compositions of U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,365 comprise a multi-phase polymeric composition derived from lactide and glycolide, the first phase having about 0 to about 25% m glycolide moieties and about 75 to about 100% m lactide moieties and the other phases having glycolide and lactide moieties in amounts such that the composition overall has up to 45% m glycolide moietites, wherein the first phase constitutes at least 50% (and preferably not more than about 95%) by weight of the composition.
In addition to the afore-recited patents and other documents which disclose polymers and copolymers of, and surgical devices made from lactide and glycolide, other patents disclose surgical devices prepared from copolymers of lactide or glycolide and other monomers including caprolactone or trimethylene carbonate. Such patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,700,704, 4,605,730 and 4,643,734. More particularly, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,605,730 and 4,700,704 disclose copolymers of epsilon-caprolactone and glycolide useful in making surgical articles and particularly surgical sutures having low Young's modulus. In addition to the afore-recited patents, U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,256 discloses the utilization of high molecular weight caprolactone polymers as coatings for surgical sutures, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,080 discloses surgical articles manufactured from triblock copolymers prepared from copolymerizing glycolide with trimethylene carbonate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is one object of the present invention to provide novel polymer compositions useful for the manufacture of surgical devices.
It is another object of this invention to provide polymer compositions which are comprised of novel blends of two or more polymers.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide absorbable surgical devices having improved mechanical properties which are manufactured from the novel polymer compositions of the invention.
These and other objects are accomplished herein by providing an absorbable polymeric composition, suitable for the manufacture of surgical devices, comprising a blend of:
(a) polymer selected from the group consisting of glycolide homopolymer, lactide homopolymer, a mixture of glycolide homopolymer and lactide homopolymer and glycolide/lactide copolymer; and
(b) from about 1 weight percent to about 50 weight percent of a polymer selected from the group consisting of polycaprolactone homopolymer, polytrimethylene carbonate homopolymer, copolymers of caprolactone and lactide, copolymers of caprolactone and glycolide, copolymers of trimethylene carbonate and lactide, copolymers of trimethylene carbonate and glycolide, copolymers of caprolactone, glycolide and lactide, copolymers of trimethylene carbonate, glycolide and lactide and mixtures thereof, based on the total weight of the blend.
Other objects of the invention are achieved herein by providing absorbable surgical devices derived from the afore-described polymer blend compositions of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/654,234 filed on Feb. 12, 1991 discloses a bioabsorbable reinforced composite material and method for the production thereof, wherein a component of the composite material may comprise a blend of homopolymers or copolymers of glycolide and lactide and polycaprolactone, and/or polytrimethylene carbonate.
In accordance with the present invention, it has now been found that absorbable surgical devices manufactured from these blends comprised of glycolide homopolymer, lactide homopolymer, glycolide/lactide copolymer or mixtures thereof and polycaprolactone homopolymer, polytrimethylene carbonate homopolymer and/or copolymers of caprolactone or trimethylene carbonate and glycolide and/or lactide, wherein the caprolactone or the trimethylene carbonate is the predominant monomer, possess improved physical and mechanical properties in comparison with surgical devices derived from glycolide or lactide homopolymer or glycolide/lactide copolymer alone.
More particularly, surgical devices prepared from the polymer blends of the present invention comprising glycolide or lactide homopolymer or glycolide/lactide copolymer and polycaprolactone or polytrimethylene carbonate homopolymer and/or copolymers of caprolactone or trimethylene carbonate and glycolide and/or lactide, wherein the caprolactone or the trimethylene carbonate is the predominant monomer (i.e. greater than 50 mole percent preferably at least 80 mole percent), are found to exhibit improved impact resistance, improved crazing properties and improved cyclic flexibility, both when annealed and non-annealed.
The novel polymer compositions of the present invention are blends of at least two polymers one of which is polycaprolactone homopolymer or polytrimethylene carbonate homopolymer or copolymer of polycaprolactone and glycolide and/or lactide or copolymer of trimethylene carbonate and glycolid
Hermes Matthew
Kaplan Donald S.
Kennedy John
Muth Ross R.
Buttner David J.
United States Surgical Corporation
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