Valvulotome

• US 5,171,316 A
• Filed: 02/19/1991
• Issued: 12/15/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Technology Holding Company II (Teleflex Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Pilling Co.
• Inventors: Mehigan, John T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Thaler, Michael H.
• Application Number:
  US07/657,081
• Time in Patent Office: 665 Days
• Field of Search: 606/159, 606/170, 606/160, 604/22, 128/151
• US Class Current: 606/159
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/32075 Pullback cutting; combined forward and pullback cutting, e.g. with cutters at both sides of the plaque
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/22097 Valve removal in veins

Abstract

A valvulotome for surgically removing venous valves in order to convert a vein into an arterial bypass, comprises a thin, elongated, flexible wire of Nickel-Titanium alloy coated with PTFE and having a head secured to its distal end. The head has a single, narrow, laterally extending arm, with a blade edge facing in the proximal direction and extending transverse to the wire. The head also has a blunt tip projecting in the distal direction and laterally spaced from the wire axis. The head has a pair of edges which are oblique with respect to the wire axis and which converge toward each other so that the width of the head is continuously tapered from locations adjacent to the ends of the blade edge toward the tip. The head has a blunt element adjacent to the end of the blade edge farthest from the wire axis, with at least a portion of said blunt element extending proximally relative to said end of the blade edge. The maximum dimension of the head in the direction perpendicular to a plane defined by the blade edge and the wire axis is less than the maximum dimension of the head in the direction parallel to the blade edge.

Claims

1. A valvulotome for surgically incising venous valves in situ in order to convert a vein into an arterial bypass, comprising a thin, elongated, flexible wire having distal and proximal ends and having a centrally located axis, a cutting head secured to the distal end of the wire for passing through the vein in either direction, said cutting head having a single, narrow arm in fixed relationship with the wire and extending laterally from said axis, said arm having a blade edge facing in the proximal direction and extending in a direction transverse to said axis, and said cutting head also having a blunt tip edge offset from said axis projecting in the distal direction and tapered edges continuously and smoothly connected between said tip edge and lateral edges adjacent to the ends of said blade edge, said tapered edges extending in opposite directions which are oblique relative to said axis and forming an acute angle with each other in a plane defined by said blade edge and by said axis when said wire is straight, said tip edge and said lateral edges all having radii of curvature shorter than the radii of the curvature of said tapered edges in said plane;

whereby the cutting head tends to center in the vein and pass through a venous valve in either direction with ease and less chance for trauma.

2. A valvulotome according to claim 1 in which the lengths of the radii of curvature of said tapered edges are such that said tapered edges are substantially straight.

3. A valvulotome according to claim 1 in which said head has a blunt element located adjacent to the end of said blade edge farthest from said axis, with at least a portion of said blunt element extending proximally relative to said end of the blade edge.

4. A valvulotome according to claim 1 in which said wire is composed of a Nickel-Titanium alloy.

5. A valvulotome according to claim 1 in which said wire is composed of a Nickel-Titanium alloy, and is coated with polytetrafluoroethylene.

6. A valvulotome according to claim 1 in which the maximum dimension of said head in the direction perpendicular to said plane is less than the maximum dimension of said head in the direction parallel to said blade edge.