porous membranes for medical implants and methods of manufacturing the same.

A process for making a porous membrane for use in a medical implant comprising: extruding a biocompatible polymeric material forming continuous fibers through a reciprocating extrusion head to form an elongated fiber; depositing the fiber onto a substrate in traces having a predetermined pattern and a width trace of 5 to 500 micrometers, adjacent traces being spaced apart a distance of between 0 and 500 micrometers, the fibers having a viscous creep predetermined characteristic, and being deposited thus to enable the adjacent traces to be joined together at predetermined contact points; and curing the biocompatible material on the substrate to provide a stable porous membrane; wherein the porous membrane is in the form of a membrane of a single layer, and wherein depositing the fiber comprises depositing the fiber so that adjacent traces of the fiber do not overlap or cross while the adjacent traces of the fiber contact each other only at bond areas to define a row of pores.