Apparatus and method for maintaining patency in a vessel adjacent to nearby surgery

• US 10,456,283 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2017
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Boston Scientific Scimed (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Boston Scientific Scimed (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Inventors: Horgan, Fergal, McNamara, Adrian, O'Gorman, Fionnuala
• Primary Examiner(s): Dang, Phong Son H
• Application Number:
  US15/648,670
• Publication Number:
  US 20180014956A1
• Time in Patent Office: 838 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/2427 Devices for manipulating or deploying heart valves during implantation
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/844 folded prior to deployment
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/95 Instruments specially adapted for placement or removal of stents or stent-grafts
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/9522 Means for mounting a stent or stent-graft onto or into a placement instrument
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/9528 for retrieval of stents
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2250/0003 having an inflatable pocket filled with fluid, e.g. liquid or gas
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 25/04 in the body, e.g. expansible A61M25/10, A61M16/0488 take precedence

Abstract

The disclosure pertains to an apparatus for maintaining patency within vessels in the vicinity of surgical procedures which might otherwise be compressed and partially or totally occluded and methods of use therefor.

Claims

1. A method of preserving patency in a non-occluded coronary artery during nearby surgery comprising:

advancing a steerable delivery catheter having a retrievable patency maintaining element contained therein in a first compact configuration into a non-occluded coronary artery within a patient within which coronary artery patency is to be preserved;

deploying the retrievable patency maintaining element in the non-occluded coronary artery;

withdrawing the steerable delivery catheter a predetermined distance from the non-occluded coronary artery within which patency is to be preserved;

performing surgery nearby the non-occluded coronary artery within which patency is to be preserved;

retrieving the retrievable patency maintaining element from the non-occluded coronary artery using a retrieval mechanism for the retrievable patency maintaining element;

removing the retrieval mechanism for the retrievable patency maintaining element from the patient wherein the withdrawing step further includes maintaining a connection between the retrievable patency maintaining element and the steerable delivery catheter or a retrieval mechanism;

wherein maintaining a connection between the retrievable patency maintaining element and the steerable delivery catheter or a retrieval mechanism is through at least one of a tether, an activation link, and an inflation tube; and

wherein the inflation tube includes a valve adapted to control flow of a fluid during inflation, an implantation interval, and/or deflation of the retrievable patency maintaining element.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the withdrawing step further includes maintaining a connection between the retrievable patency maintaining element and the steerable delivery catheter or the retrieval mechanism.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein maintaining a connection between the retrievable patency maintaining element and the steerable delivery catheter or the retrieval mechanism is through at least one of a tether, an activation link, and an inflation tube.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the withdrawing step does not include maintaining contact between the retrievable patency maintaining element and the steerable delivery catheter or the retrieval mechanism.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieving step includes advancing the retrieval mechanism along the connection between the retrievable patency maintaining element and the steerable delivery catheter or a retrieval mechanism.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieving step is performed without relying upon a connection between the retrievable patency maintaining element and the retrieval mechanism.