Surgical apparatus and instruments; medical apparatus and instruments for treating cardiovascular disease; implantable medical devices, namely, cardiac valves for surgical prostheses, stents, artificial prosthetic vascular grafts, vascular prostheses, artificial vascular grafts, artificial endovascular grafts, and catheters; artificial prosthetic vascular grafts; stents; vascular prostheses; surgical implants comprising artificial material; suture materials; patches for repair and reconstruction of internal tissue, namely, cardiovascular patches in the nature of artificial vascular grafts, pericardial patches in the nature of artificial vascular grafts, and carotid patches implantable medical devices, namely, implants consisting of artificial materials, synthetic vascular prostheses, artificial vascular grafts, and synthetic heart valve conduits in the nature of artificial cardiac valves; artificial vascular grafts; artificial endovascular grafts; surgical graft materials, namely, artificial vascular grafts; vascular prostheses for the treatment of aneurysmal or occlusive arterial disease; medical devices for use in endovascular procedures, namely, medical devices for use in treating cardiovascular disease; thoracic stents; synthetic thoracic stent grafts; synthetic stent graft systems comprised of synthetic stent grafts, stent delivery systems, and stent graft delivery systems; thoracic synthetic stent graft systems comprised of synthetic stent grafts, stent delivery systems, and stent graft delivery systems; delivery systems for synthetic stent graft systems comprised of medical instruments for intraluminal emplacement of stents or of synthetic stent grafts; aneurysm repair systems comprised of catheter delivered synthetic stent grafts, medical instruments for intraluminal emplacement of stents, artificial stent delivery systems, synthetic stent grafts, stent delivery systems, stent graft delivery systems, or synthetic stent graft delivery systems; cardiac valves for surgical prostheses; cardiac valve replacement systems comprised of artificial cardiac valves; heart valves, namely, artificial cardiac valves; heart valve conduits, namely, stents and stent delivery systems; cardiac patches, namely, cardiovascular patches in the nature of artificial vascular grafts, pericardial patches in the nature of artificial vascular grafts, and carotid patches in the nature of artificial vascular grafts; vascular patches, namely, cardiovascular patches in the nature of artificial vascular grafts, pericardial patches in the nature of artificial vascular grafts, and carotid patches in the nature of artificial vascular grafts