member of the prosthetic device may not be coated with the silver such as in areas of suture markings in addition in vivo experiments have shown excellent tissue ingrowth without excessive thrombus formation minimal migration of silver into surrounding tissue may provide further anti microbial protection the thin film silver coating may be deposited or carried in the fabric member fibers or sewing cuff using methods known to the art throughout this application the term 34 coating 34 or 34 coated 34 may be used to mean that the silver may be coated on the surface of the device or component or may be implanted within or into the device or component as well as on the surface of the device or component depending on how the silver was applied for instance the silver coatings may be applied by vapor deposition or by sputtering the use of the vapor deposition technique is described in u s pat no 4 167 045 to sawyer although any of a number of techniques can be used to create the silver coating it is important that the coating be extremely adherent to the fabric or other materials to prevent excessive circulation of the cytotoxic silver material throughout the body while retaining porosity necessary for.