Vapor ablation treatment of obstructive lung disease
AssigneeUptake Medical Technology Inc.
InventorsErik HENNE, Robert L. BARRY, Thomas M. Keast
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Abstract
A treatment of obstructive lung disease includes aiming a condensable vapor towards the airway wall, causing a band-shaped lesion to grow to a depth into the airway wall. Ablation parameters are set to control the depth of the band-shaped lesion to encompass the epithelial layer and exclude the smooth muscle layer of the airway. A wide variety of configurations of the vapor delivery are described to create ablation patterns in the airways of the patient with particular emphasis on treating chronic bronchitis.
Claims24
An intraluminal or bronchoscopic method for treating obstructive lung disease comprising:
- determining at least one discrete band-shaped area along the surface of the airway to ablate to form a band-shaped lesion having a width and a depth;
- computing a dose of vapor to aim at the surface to form the band-shaped lesion based on a set of ablation parameters, the set of ablation parameters selected from the group consisting of (a) anatomic, (b) device and controller, and (c) treatment-specific parameters;
- advancing a vapor ablation catheter into the airway of the patient lung and aiming at least one egress port of a vapor ablation catheter directly towards the surface;
- and
- delivering the vapor from the at least one egress port into the surface of the airway and according to said computed dose of vapor, thereby causing formation of the band-shaped lesion wherein the dose of vapor from computing step is predetermined to cause the band-shaped lesion to have a depth in the range from 0.1 to 0.7 mm, and a width in the range from 5 to 20 mm.
An intra-airway method for treating obstructive lung disease in a patient comprising:
- advancing a vapor ablation catheter into an airway of the patient lung;
- isolating a target section along the airway to ablate;
- aiming at least one egress port of the vapor ablation catheter directly towards the surface of an airway wall of the airway within the target section;
- emitting vapor from the at least one egress port into the surface of the airway causing a thin ablation layer to form extending from the surface of the airway wall to a depth in the airway wall;
- and
- controlling the depth of ablation layer to include the epithelial layer and exclude the smooth muscle layer of the airway wall.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.