A medical device includes a substrate structure with a surface. The surface is laser treated to define at least one protrusion and/or at least one void extending relative to the surface. A coating having antibacterial, antimicrobial and/or drug eluding properties is applied to the substrate structure such that the coating engages within or along a surface portion of one or more of the protrusions and/or voids.

A processing technique for creating nanowires and hierarchically porous micro/nano structures of ceramic materials is provided. The process includes evaporation of micron-sized water droplets containing dissolved organic salts on heated substrates followed by thermal decomposition of the deposited material. The micron-sized droplets may be generated by supercritical CO.sub.2 assisted nebulization, in which high-pressure streams of aqueous solution and supercritical CO.sub.2 are mixed, followed by controlled depressurization through a fine capillary. Rapid evaporation takes place on the heated substrates and structures are generated due to CO.sub.2 effervescence from the droplets and evaporation of water, along with the pinning of the three phase contact line. Depending on the mass deposited, a mesh of nano-wires or membrane-like structures may result. Sintering of the membrane-like scaffolds above the decomposition temperature of the organic salt creates nanopores within the structures, creating a dual hierarchy of pores.

An RF charging system for implantable medical devices. The RF charging system includes a radio frequency (RF) signal, a first antenna configured to transmit the RF signal, a second antenna configured to receive the RF signal transmitted by the first antenna, tune characteristics of the RF signal, and improve power transfer with impedance matching circuitry, an RF to direct current (DC) converter configured to convert the RF signal of the second antenna into a DC signal, and a battery management circuit configured to receive the DC signal and provide voltage to a battery.

Embodiments of methods and apparatuses for forming the metal oxide nanostructure on surfaces are disclosed. In certain embodiments, the nanostructures can be formed on a substrate made of a nickel titanium alloy, resulting in a nanostructure that can include both titanium oxide and nickel oxide. The nanostructure can be formed on the surface(s) of an implantable medical device, such as a stent.

The compositions of the present invention comprise at least one medium polarity oil and at least one antibacterial agent, the combination of which produces a synergistic antibacterial effect against bacterial biofilms. Methods are disclosed for the reduction of bacteria in and/or elimination of bacterial biofilms on biological and non-biological surfaces, as well as methods for the treatment of wounds, skin lesions, mucous membrane lesions, and other biological surfaces infected or contaminated with bacterial biofilms.

A method of a forming a hollow, drug-eluting nitinol stent includes shaping a composite wire into a stent pattern, wherein the composite wire includes an inner member, a nitinol intermediate member, and an outer member. After the composite wire is shaped into the stent pattern, the composite wire is heat treated to set the nitinol intermediate member in the stent pattern. After heat treatment, the composite wire is processed to remove the outer member and the inner member without adversely affecting the intermediate member. Openings may be provided through the intermediate member and the lumen of the intermediate member may be filled with a substance to be eluted through the openings.

An article or vessel is described including a vessel surface and a coating set comprising at least one tie coating, at least one barrier coating, and at least one pH protective coating. For example, the coating set can comprise a tie coating, a barrier coating, a pH protective coating and a second barrier coating; and in the presence of a fluid composition, the fluid contacting surface is the barrier coating or layer. The respective coatings can be applied by PECVD of a polysiloxane precursor. Such vessels can have a coated interior portion containing a fluid with a pH of 4 to 8. The barrier coating prevents oxygen from penetrating into the thermoplastic vessel, and the tie coating and pH protective coating together protect the barrier layer from the contents of the vessel. The second barrier coating is comparable to glass surface if needed.

An absorbable iron-based instrument is provided having an iron-based substrate, a zinc-containing protector in contact with the iron-based substrate, and a degradable polyester in contact with the iron-based substrate and/or the zinc-containing protector. The range of the ratio of the mass of the zinc-containing protector to the mass of the iron-based substrate is 1:200 to 1:2. In the degradable polyester, the mass fraction of a low-molecular-weight part with a molecular weight of less than 10,000 is less than or equal to 5%; alternatively, in the degradable polyester, the mass fraction of a residual monomer is less than or equal to 2%.

A bioabsorbable wire material includes manganese (Mn) and iron (Fe). One or more additional constituent materials (X) are added to control corrosion in an in vivo environment and, in particular, to prevent and/or substantially reduce the potential for pitting corrosion. For example, the (X) element in the Fe—Mn—X system may include nitrogen (N), molybdenum (Mo) or chromium (Cr), or a combination of these. This promotes controlled degradation of the wire material, such that a high percentage loss of material the overall material mass and volume may occur without fracture of the wire material into multiple wire fragments. In some embodiments, the wire material may have retained cold work for enhanced strength, such as for medical applications. In some applications, the wire material may be a fine wire suitable for use in resorbable in vivo structures such as stents.

Thin-film mesh for medical devices, including stent and scaffold devices, and related methods are provided. Micropatterned thin-film mesh, such as thin-film Nitinol (TFN) mesh, may be fabricated via sputter deposition on a micropatterned wafer. The thin-film mesh may include slits to be expanded into pores, and the expanded thin-film mesh used as a cover for a stent device. The stent device may include two stent modules that may be implanted at a bifurcated aneurysm such that one module passes through a medial surface of the other module. The thin-film mesh may include pores with complex, fractal, or fractal-like shapes. The thin-film mesh may be used as a scaffold for a scaffold device. The thin-film scaffold may be placed in a solution including structural protein such as fibrin, seeded with cells, and placed in the body to replace or repair tissue.