Apparatus and methods for deployment of multiple custom-length prostheses (ii)
AssigneeXtent, Inc.
InventorStephen KAO
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Apparatus for delivering stents to body lumens include one or more tubular prostheses carried at the distal end of a catheter shaft, a sheath slidably disposed over the prostheses, and a guidewire tube extending from within the sheath to the exterior of the sheath through an exit port in a sidewall thereof A guidewire extends slidably through the guidewire tube. The sheath can be moved relative to the catheter shaft and the guidewire tube to expose the prostheses for deployment. Methods of delivering stents are also provided.
Claims15
Apparatus for delivering a prosthesis into a target vessel of a patient, comprising:
- a flexible catheter having proximal and distal ends, said catheter comprising an outer sheath and an inner shaft;
- a plurality of tubular prostheses releasably carried near the distal end of the catheter such that the tubular prostheses are slidably positioned upon the inner shaft and deployable therefrom, the outer sheath disposed over the prostheses and being axially movable relative thereto such that a selectable number of tubular prostheses are separated and exposed for deployment;
- and
- a pusher which is translatable along the inner shaft such that distal movement of the pusher slides the plurality of tubular prostheses therealong,
- wherein at least a portion of the tubular prostheses have a radiopaque marker disposed thereon such that the number of prostheses deployed from the catheter at one time may be visualized.
A method of determining the number of prostheses deployed in a vessel comprising:
- sliding a plurality of prostheses upon an inner shaft of a catheter by urging a pusher distally along the inner shaft;
- exposing a selected number of prostheses for deployment into the vessel while at least one other of the plurality of prostheses remains unexposed;
- deploying from the catheter the selected number of prostheses end-to-end in the vessel while the at least one other of the plurality of prostheses remains undeployed on the catheter;
- and
- visualizing radiopaque markers on at least a portion of the deployed prostheses, the radiopaque markers indicating the location of each deployed prosthesis relative to other deployed prostheses.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.