Method and device for treating intracranial vascular aneurysms

#Stroke refers to a disease of vascular origin characterized by a neurologic deficit of acute or subacute onset. Stroke is the most common life-threatening neurologic disease and is the third leading cause of death in developed countries after heart disease and cancer.

#Approximately 6 to 8 percent of all strokes result from nontraumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), a condition where blood leaks from the cerebral vasculature into the subarachnoid space. Approximately eighty percent of subarachnoid hemorrhages results from rupture of an intracranial aneurysm. See, for example, "Aneurysmal rebleeding: A preliminary report from the Cooperative Aneurysm Study," Neurosurgery, 1983, 13:479-481, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

#An aneurysm is an abnormal, circumscribed dilation of a blood vessel. In the cerebral circulation, most aneurysms take the form of thin-walled sacs protruding from the arteries of the circle of Willis at the base of the brain, or from its branches.

#These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying figures where:

#FIG. 1 is a fragmentary side elevational view of an intravascular catheter according to one embodiment of the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the intravascular catheter shown in FIG. 1 taken along the line 2--2;

#According to one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a device and method for the therapeutic management of intracranial vascular aneurysms. The invention involves the use of intravascular balloon catheters that can directly image the aneurysm and that can occlude the lumen of the aneurysm sac using liquid sealing agents. The intracranial catheters, according to the present invention, have various configurations designed to treat aneurysms at different locations within the intracranial vascular system.

#Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown, respectively, a fragmentary side elevational view of an intravascular catheter according to one embodiment of the present invention and a cross-sectional view of the intravascular catheter shown in FIG. 1 taken along the line 2--2. The catheter 10 is particularly useful to occlude intracranial aneurysms located such that, upon occlusion of the blood vessel proximal to the aneurysm by the inflated inflation balloon, there is minimal backflow of blood into the aneurysm from the parent artery or from adjacent collateral blood vessels.

#The catheter 10 comprises a proximal end 12, a distal end 14, a body 16 between the proximal end 12 and the distal end 14, and a central lumen 18 extending through the catheter from the proximal end 12 to the distal end 14. As used herein, "central lumen" refers to one or more coaxial lumens within the body 16 of the catheter 10.