Oscillating endoscopic catheter for fallopian tube navigation
AssigneeFemDx Medsystems, Inc.
InventorsAlbert K. Chin, Pei-Jie Cao
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A falloposcope intended for use with a hysteroscope to access, image, and collect samples from a patient's fallopian tube includes a cannula having an angled tip oriented to engage a fallopian tube os when the cannula is transcervically introduced to a patient's uterus through the hysteroscope. The catheter has a distal viewing tip configured to be advanced from a distal end of the cannula into the patient's uterus through a cervical os. A viewing chamber has a wide proximal end attached to the distal viewing tip of the catheter, and the viewing chamber is at least partially transparent and typically tapers in a distal direction to provide a clear viewing zone for the endoscope as well as atraumatic advancement into the fallopian tube.
Claims14
A falloposcope comprising:
- a cannula having an angled tip oriented to engage a fallopian os when the cannula is transcervically introduced to a patient's uterus;
- a catheter having a distal viewing tip configured to be advanced from a distal end of the cannula into the patient's uterus through a cervical os;
- a viewing chamber having a wide proximal end attached to the distal viewing tip of the catheter, wherein the viewing chamber is at least partially transparent and tapers in a distal direction to provide both a clear viewing zone for the endoscope and atraumatic advancement into the fallopian tube;
- and
- a cell collection element located on an exterior of the catheter proximal of the viewing chamber.
A method for accessing a patient's fallopian tube, said method comprising:
- transcervically introducing a distal end of a cannula into the patient's uterus to engage the patient's fallopian tube os;
- advancing a catheter having a distal viewing tip from a distal end of the cannula into the patient's fallopian tube through the patient's fallopian tube os;
- atraumatically advancing the catheter through the patient's fallopian tube while viewing an interior of the fallopian tube through a tapered viewing chamber attached to the distal viewing tip of the catheter, wherein astraumatically advancing the catheter comprises manually grasping a proximal end of the catheter;
- and
- collecting a cell from the fallopian tube, via a cell collection element, wherein the cell collection element is located on an exterior of the catheter proximal of the tapered viewing chamber.
A falloposcope comprising:
- a cannula having an angled tip oriented to engage a fallopian os when the cannula is transcervically introduced to a patient's uterus;
- a catheter having a distal viewing tip configured to be advanced from a distal end of the cannula into the patient's uterus through a cervical os;
- a viewing chamber having a wide proximal end attached to the distal viewing tip of the catheter;
- and
- a cell collection element located on an exterior of the catheter proximal of the viewing chamber,
- wherein the catheter is translatably and rotationally received in a lumen of the cannula and wherein a proximal end of the catheter is configured to be manually grasped by a user to allow manual translation and rotation with tactile feedback.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.