Endovascular system for arresting the heart

A method of positioning a catheter in a patient's ascending aorta between the patient's coronary ostia and the patient's brachiocephalic artery,

• introducing a distal end of a shaft of an aortic catheter into a blood vessel downstream of the patient's ascending aorta, the shaft comprising an inner tubular member within an outer tubular member;
• transluminally positioning the shaft so that the distal end of the shaft is in the ascending aorta and an expandable occluding member, having a distal end attached to the inner tubular member and a proximal end attached to the outer tubular member, is disposed between the coronary ostia and the brachiocephalic artery;
• expanding the occluding member within the ascending aorta to block blood flow therethrough by passing an inflation fluid through a flow passage between the inner tubular member and the outer tubular member;
• and
• measuring pressure within the expandable occluding member with a pressure transducer within the expandable occluding member.

A method of positioning a catheter in a patient's ascending aorta between the patient's coronary ostia and the patient's brachiocephalic artery:

• providing an aortic catheter having a shaft comprising an inner tubular member within an outer tubular member and an expandable occluding member attached to the shaft near the distal end thereof;
• withdrawing the outer tubular member proximally with respect to the inner tubular member to reduce the profile of the occluding member on the shaft of the aortic catheter;
• introducing the distal end of the shaft into a blood vessel downstream of the patient's ascending aorta;
• transluminally positioning the shaft so that the distal end of the shaft is in the ascending aorta and the expandable occluding member is disposed between the coronary ostia and the brachiocephalic artery;
• and
• expanding the occluding member within the ascending aorta to block blood flow therethrough.

A method of positioning a catheter in a patient's ascending aorta between the patient's coronary ostia and the patient's brachiocephalic artery, comprising:

• introducing a distal end of a shaft of an aortic catheter into a blood vessel downstream of the patient's ascending aorta, the shaft comprising an inner tubular member within an outer tubular member, the inner tubular member extending at least to the distal end of the outer tubular member;
• transluminally positioning the shaft so that the distal end of the shaft is in the ascending aorta and an expandable occluding member attached to the shaft near the distal end is disposed between the coronary ostia and the brachiocephalic artery;
• expanding the occluding member within the ascending aorta to prevent migration of the occluding member into the aortic root;
• and
• measuring pressure within the occluding member with a pressure transducer positioned within the occluding member.

A method of positioning a catheter in a patient's ascending aorta between the patient's coronary ostia and the patient's coronary ostia and the patient's brachiocephalic artery, comprising:

• introducing a distal end of a shaft of an aortic catheter into a blood vessel downstream of the patient's ascending aorta, the shaft comprising an inner tubular member within an outer tubular member, the inner tubular member extending at least to the distal end of the outer tubular member;
• rotating the outer tubular member with respect to the inner tubular member to reduce the profile of an expandable occluding member on the shaft of the aortic partitioning device;
• transluminally positioning the shaft so that the distal end of the shaft is in the ascending aorta and the expandable occluding member attached to the shaft near the distal end is disposed between the coronary ostia and the brachiocephalic artery;
• and
• expanding the occluding member within the ascending aorta to prevent migration of the occluding member into the aortic root.