Implantable medical device for delivering a liquid

• US 20040044332A1
• Filed: 04/10/2003
• Published: 03/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apollo Endosurgery US, Inc. (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Original Assignee: EndoArt SA (Abbvie Incorporated)
• Inventors: Stergiopulos, Nikolaus
• Granted Patent: US 6,974,445 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 604/891.1
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/14276 specially adapted for implantation
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/16809 by repeated filling and emptying of an intermediate volume pressure infusion using positive displacement pumps A61M5/142

Abstract

The invention concerns an implantable device (1) for delivering medicines in liquid form comprising: a reservoir (2) provided with an inlet (3) and an outlet (10), said reservoir (2) being adapted to expel the liquid; a variable volume chamber (5) provided with an inlet (11) and an outlet (12), the volume of the variable volume chamber (5) being in particular smaller than that of the reservoir (2); a first conduit (6) communicating the outlet (10) of the reservoir (2) with the inlet (11) of the variable volume chamber (5) to fill the latter; a second conduit (8) whereof one of the ends is connected on the outlet (12) of the variable volume chamber (5).

Claims

1. An implantable device (1) for administering medicines in liquid form, comprising:

a reservoir (2) provided with an inlet (3) and an outlet (10), said reservoir (2) being adapted to expel the liquid,

a variable-volume chamber (5) provided with an inlet (11) and an outlet (12), the volume of the variable-volume chamber (5) being notably smaller than that of the reservoir (2),

a first conduit (6) connecting the outlet (10) of the reservoir (2) to the inlet (11) of the variable-volume chamber (5) in order to fill the latter, said first conduit (6) comprising means (7) for interrupting and opening the flow of the liquid,

a second conduit (8), one of whose ends is connected to the outlet (12) of the variable-volume chamber (5),

characterized in that;

said second conduit (8) is without a valve or any other similar device,

said variable-volume chamber (5) is adapted to expel a predefined volume Vex of liquid from the moment when its expansion has reached a specified value.

2. The device as claimed in the preceding claim, characterized in that the interrupting means (7) are activated at the instant when the expansion of the variable-volume chamber (5) has reached a specified value.

3. The device as claimed in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the opening means (7) are activated at regular time intervals Δ

t in such a way that the delivery of the liquid from the variable-volume chamber