Malleable surgical ablation instruments

Abstract

Malleable surgical ablation instruments are disclosed for creating lesions in tissue, including cardiac tissue for treatment of arrhythmias and other diseases. The hand held instruments are especially useful in open chest or port access cardiac surgery for rapid and efficient creation of curvilinear lesions to serve as conduction blocks. The malleable instruments disclosed are well adapted for use in or around the intricate structures of the heart. In one example, the distal end of the instrument can have a malleable shape or be in the shape of an open loop so as to allow the loop to be placed around at least one a pulmonary vein or artery. Such instruments can incorporate various ablative elements such as ablative radiation, RF heating, cryogenic cooling, ultrasound, microwave, ablative fluid injection and the like.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.