Medical devices fabricated from homopolymers and copolymers having recurring carbonate units

Claim 1

A medical device comprising a body, said body formed totally or in part of one or more biopolymers selected from the group consisting of homopolymers having recurring monomeric unit selected from the group consisting of General Structures I or II: ##STR12## wherein: --Z-- is --C(R 5 R 6 )--, --O-- or a combination thereof; where Z is selected such that there are no adjacent heteroatoms; n is from 1 to about 8; m is from 1 to about 8; R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , and R 4 are the same or different at each occurrence and are hydrogen, aryloxyalkyl, alkyoxyaryl, aryloxyaryl, arylalkyl, alkylarylalkyl, arylalkylaryl, alkylaryl, arylcarbonylalkyl, alkyl, aryl, alkylcarbonylalkyl, cycloalkyl, arylcarbonylaryl, alkylcarbonylaryl, alkoxyalkyl, or aryl or alkyl substituted with one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of alkyl, aryl, alkoxy, aryloxy, dialkylamino, diarylamino and alkylarylamino; and R 5 and R 6 are the same or different and are R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 , dialkylamino, diarylamino, alkylarylamino, alkoxy, aryloxy, alkanoyl, or arylcarbonyl, or any two of R1 to R5 together may form an alkylene chain completing a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 membered alicyclic fused, spiro, bicyclic or tricyclic ring system or a combination thereof, which system may optionally include one or more non-adjacent carbonyl, oxa, alkylaza or arylaza groups; with the proviso that when the said biopolymers are homopolymers having recurring units of the Structure II derived from ethylene carbonate or propylene carbonate then m is other than 1.