Indwelling Nerve Block Catheters
AssigneesSRI International, The Board of Trustees for the Leland Stanford Junior University
InventorsPablo E. Garcia, Chunyuan Qin, Sarah J. Young, Karen Frances Shakespear, Sanjeev Dutta, Elliot Krane, Radhamangalam J. Ramamurthi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A nerve block catheter system employs an indwelling, flexible catheter comprising a tissue lock to retain the catheter tip in pharmacologically proximity to a target nerve and optionally, a decoupler that insulates the tip of the catheter from proximal tissue movement.
Claims20
A nerve block catheter system comprising a flexible indwelling catheter and a rigid stylet, the catheter and stylet each comprising a proximal portion and a distal portion terminating in a distal tip, wherein:
- (a) the distal portion of the catheter comprises a tissue lock which engages target site tissue without axially advancing or retracting the tip whereby the tip is retained in pharmacologically proximity to a target nerve, and the proximal portion of the catheter comprises an actuator of the tissue lock,
- (b) the stylet is insertable axially in the catheter, providing rigidity to the catheter system during placement,
- (c) the distal tip of the catheter and/or the stylet is sufficiently sharp to push through to the target site tissue, and
- (d) the distal portion of the catheter and/or stylet comprises an electrode that senses and/or stimulates nerve electrical activity for placement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.