DEVICES AND METHODS FOR ANCHORING TISSUE

• US 20120271331A1
• Filed: 07/02/2012
• Published: 10/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ancora Heart, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Guided Delivery Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: TO, John, STARKSEN, Niel F., FABRO, Mariel, IM, Karl S., PLIAM, Nathan B.
• Application Number:
  US13/540,499
• Publication Number:
  US 20120271331A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 606/151
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/00234 for minimally invasive surgery A61B17/0218, A61B17/0469, A61B17/12013, A61B17/1285, A61B17/29, A61B17/320016 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/0401 Suture anchors, buttons or pledgets, i.e. means for attaching sutures to bone, cartilage or soft tissue; Instruments for applying or removing suture anchors A61B17/0642 takes precedence; fixation devices for tendons or ligaments A61F2/0811
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/064 Surgical staples, i.e. penetrating the tissue
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/0644 penetrating the tissue, deformable to closed position
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/0682 for applying U-shaped staples or clamps, e.g. without a forming anvil
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00243 cardiac
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00783 Valvuloplasty
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00867 shape memory effect
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/0409 Instruments for applying suture anchors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/0414 having a suture-receiving opening, e.g. lateral opening
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/0443 the shaft being resilient and having a coiled or helical shape in the released state
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/0811 Fixation devices for tendons or ligaments
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/2445 Annuloplasty rings in direct contact with the valve annulus

Abstract

Anchors, anchoring systems, anchor delivery devices, and method of using anchors are described. An anchor may be a flexible anchor having two curved legs that cross in a single turning direction to form a loop, wherein the legs are adapted to penetrate tissue. The ends of the curved legs may be blunt or sharp. The anchor can assume different configurations such as a deployed configuration and a delivery configuration, and the anchor may switch between these different configurations. In operation, the anchor may be inserted into tissue by releasing the anchor from a delivery configuration so that the anchor self-expands into the deployed configuration, so that the legs of the anchor may penetrate the tissue in a curved pathway.

Claims

1. An anchor device comprising:

a catheter; and

a self-securing anchor coupled to a tether, the anchor having an initial constrained undeployed configuration wherein the anchor is constrained by the catheter, and a deployed configuration wherein the anchor is released from the catheter, wherein the anchor has two legs having ends and wherein the legs of the anchor in both the initial undeployed and the deployed configurations cross in a single turning direction from one end to the other end to form a loop, the loop defining an opening that shortens as the anchor changes from the initial undeployed configuration to the deployed configuration, and wherein the leg ends in the deployed configuration curve back toward the loop.

2. The anchor of claim 1 wherein the ends of the legs are blunt.

3. The anchor of claim 1, wherein the ends of the legs are sharp.

4. The anchor of claim 1, wherein the anchor is made of a shape-memory material.

5. The anchor of claim 4, wherein the anchor comprises Nickel-Titanium Alloy.

6. The anchor of claim 1, wherein the anchor is made of a superelastic material.

7. The anchor of claim 1, wherein the legs are collapsed in the undeployed configuration and expanded in the deployed configuration.

8. The anchor of claim 1, wherein, when the anchor is deployed in a tissue, the anchor may expand or collapse from the deployed configuration to absorb energy during dynamic loading of the tissue.

9. The anchor of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the loop comprises a loop size limiting region that is less flexible than the legs.

11. The anchor of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the anchor is coated with an agent.

12. The anchor of claim 11 wherein the agent is selected from the group consisting of an anti-inflammatory agent, an anti-coagulant agent, an anti-proliferative agent, and a pro-proliferative agent.

13. The anchor of claim 12 wherein the agent is a pro-proliferative agent.

14. The anchor of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the anchor has a region of increased friction.

15. The anchor of claim 1, wherein the anchor comprises at least one sensor.

10. A method of securing an anchor to tissue comprising:

compressing a self-securing anchor coupled to a tether within a catheter, the anchor having an initial constrained undeployed configuration wherein the anchor is constrained by the catheter, wherein the anchor is compressed into the initial undeployed configuration, the anchor comprising two legs having ends, the legs crossing in a single turning direction from one end to the other end to form a loop, the loop defining an opening; and

releasing the anchor from the initial undeployed configuration into an expanded deployed configuration wherein the anchor is released from the catheter and the opening shortens as the anchor changes from the initial undeployed configuration to the deployed configuration, and wherein the leg ends deploy through the tissue in a curved path toward the loop to secure the anchor into the tissue.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the anchor is released into cardiac tissue.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein more than one anchor is released into tissue.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the anchor is released into tissue of a hollow body organ.

16. A self-securing anchor coupled to a tether, the anchor having an initial constrained undeployed configuration and a deployed configuration, wherein the anchor has two legs having ends and wherein the legs of the anchor in both the initial undeployed and deployed configurations cross in a single turning direction from one end to the other end to form a loop, and wherein the ends of the legs in the deployed configuration curve back toward the loop.