US 6,558,349 B1 · Apparatus and method for retaining a catheter in a blood vessel in a fixed position

Abstract

A method and apparatus for retaining a catheter tip in a fixed position within a blood flow and preventing it from contacting a blood vessel wall. The apparatus includes a tip retainer at the distal end of the catheter that anchors the tip of the catheter within the blood vessel. The catheter tip is retained within the blood vessel spaced from the wall to ensure that it does not contact the wall of the blood vessel. This reduces damage to the blood vessel caused by chronic movement and contact between the catheter tip and the wall of the blood vessel. In one embodiment, the tip retainer includes a prong that penetrates the wall of the blood vessel, thus preventing the catheter tip from moving longitudinally within the blood vessel. In alternative embodiments, the tip retainer contacts the wall but does not penetrate the wall.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A catheter assembly comprising:

an elongated tube having a first lumen, a proximal end and a distal, the lumen being open at the proximal and distal ends and permitting fluid transport from the distal end inside a body to the proximal end outside the body, a first end region, and a second end region located proximate to the distal end;
and
a tip retainer assembly coupled at the first end region, the tip retainer assembly including a single loop of wire having a first end and a second end, having one end of the wire coupled to the tube at the first end region and a second end of the wire coupled to the tube at the first end region and the wire extending in a preshaped form that has loop having a selected shape and diameter when at rest.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Apparatus and method for retaining a catheter in a blood vessel in a fixed position

Life of this patent

Apparatus and method for retaining a catheter in a blood vessel in a fixed position

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15