Intravascular flow restrictor
AssigneeAGA Medical Corporation
InventorKurt Amplatz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An intravascular flow restrictor comprises a braided tubular structure designed to be placed in the main pulmonary artery for limiting blood pressure in the lungs. The braided structure is designed to be collapsed for placement in a delivery catheter but when ejected from the delivery catheter, assumes a substantially larger diameter disk shaped device having one or more longitudinal channels or passways therethrough.
Claims23
A collapsible medical device, comprising a plurality of metal strands woven into a woven metal fabric having a proximal end and a distal end, each end having a means for securing each end attached to said woven metal fabric, thereby gathering said strands and inhibiting unraveling of the strands, said woven metal fabric having an expanded preset configuration shaped to create a restriction in a blood vessel, said expanded preset configuration being in a shape of a cylindrical disk of a predetermined thickness having at least one lumen extending through the thickness dimension of said disk and deformable to a lesser cross-sectional dimension for delivery through a channel in a patient's body, the woven metal fabric having a memory property whereby the medical device tends to return to said expanded preset configuration when unconstrained.
A collapsible medical device, comprising:
- a tubular woven metal fabric including a plurality of braided strands and having a first end and a second end, each end having a clamp attached to said metal fabric to thereby gather said strands together and inhibit unraveling of the stands, said metal fabric having a collapsed configuration for delivery through a channel in a patient's body and a generally cylindrical disk-shaped expanded preset configuration for substantially creating a restriction to blood flow in a body organ.
A collapsible medical device, comprising a woven metal fabric including a plurality of braided strands and having a proximal end and a distal end, each end having a clamp attached to said tubular woven metal fabric to thereby gather said strands together and inhibit the strands from unraveling, said woven metal fabric having an expanded preset configuration shaped to create a restriction to blood flow in a body organ, said expanded preset configuration being disk-shaped and deformable to a lesser cross-sectional dimension for delivery through a channel in a patient's body, wherein the expanded preset configuration comprises two expanded diameter end portions and a hollow central portion, said expanded diameter portions having a diameter to span a patient's pulmonary artery, the end portions and the central portion including openings of a predetermined size substantially less than the size of the expanded diameter portions therein, the woven metal fabric having a memory property whereby the medical device tends to return to said expanded present configuration when unconstrained.
A method for reducing blood pressure to which the lungs of a patient having a septal defect are exposed, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a tubular, braided flow restrictor device exhibiting an expanded state sized to span the patient's pulmonary artery and an elongated, stretched state sized to fit within a lumen of a tubular loading member;
- (b) assembling the flow restrictor device to a distal end of a pusher device;
- (c) inserting the pusher device into the lumen of a tubular loading member and drawing the flow restrictor device into the lumen of the loading member by applying a pulling force to the proximal end of the pusher device;
- (d) routing a guide catheter intravascularly until the distal end of the guiding catheter has entered the ostium of the pulmonary artery;
- (e) attaching the loading member to the guiding catheter and pushing the flow restrictor with the pusher device to a desired location in a pulmonary artery;
- (f) expelling the flow restrictor device from the distal end of the guiding catheter, the flow restrictor device self-expanding to its expanded state to lodge in the pulmonary artery;
- and
- (g) uncoupling the pusher device from the flow restrictor device and withdrawing the pusher device and guiding catheter form the patient's body.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.