Medical procedures and apparatus using intrabody probes
First Claim
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1. A method of guiding a probe in the body of a patient comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a site probe at a site within the body of a patient and providing a instrument probe to be guided within the body of the patient;
(b) transmitting one or more non-ionizing fields to or from each of said probes and detecting each such transmitted field; and
(c) determining the relative disposition of said instrument probe and said site probe by determining a position of each said probe in a common frame of reference based upon the properties of said detected fields and determining said relative disposition based upon the so-determined positions; and
(d) directing said instrument probe toward said site probe based on relative deposition.
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Abstract
A medical probe such as a catheter (20) is guided within the body of a patient by determining the relative positions of the probe relative to another probe, as by transmitting non-ionizing radiation to or from field transducers (30, 230) mounted on both probes. In one embodiment, a site probe (28) is secured to a lesion within the body, and an instrument probe (200) for treating the lesion may be guided to the lesion by monitoring relative positions of the probes. Two or more probes may be coordinated with one another to perform a medical procedure.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method of guiding a probe in the body of a patient comprising the steps of:
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(a) providing a site probe at a site within the body of a patient and providing a instrument probe to be guided within the body of the patient;
(b) transmitting one or more non-ionizing fields to or from each of said probes and detecting each such transmitted field; and
(c) determining the relative disposition of said instrument probe and said site probe by determining a position of each said probe in a common frame of reference based upon the properties of said detected fields and determining said relative disposition based upon the so-determined positions; and
(d) directing said instrument probe toward said site probe based on relative deposition. - View Dependent Claims (2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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- 3. A method as claimed in 1 wherein said directing step includes the step of moving said instrument probe toward said site probe.
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12. A method of guiding a probe in a medical patient comprising the steps of:
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(a) providing a site probe at a site within the body of a patient and providing a instrument probe to be guided within the body of the patient;
(b) transmitting one or more magnetic fields to or from each of said probes and detecting each such transmitted field;
(c) determining the relative disposition of said site probe and said instrument probe from the properties of said detected fields;
(d) providing an indication of said relative disposition; and
(e) moving said instrument probe within the body of the patient toward said site in response to said indication. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method of coordinating two probes, comprising:
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(a) providing a first and second probe, each of which has a field transducer mounted thereon;
(b) performing a first medical procedure at a first location using the first probe;
(c) performing a second medical procedure at a second location using the second probe;
(d) determining the relative positions of the probes in a common frame of reference by transmitting one or more non-ionizing magnetic fields to or from said field transducers on said probes; and
(e) coordinating the two medical procedures using the determined relative positions in the common frame of reference. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
(a) determining the position of the first probe using non-ionizing magnetic radiation;
(b) determining the position of the second probe using non-ionizing magnetic radiation; and
(c) subtracting the two positions.
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26. A method of displaying the relative positions of an instrument and a site within the body of a living subject for directing the instrument toward the site comprising the steps of:
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(a) providing an arbitrary representation of the instrument on a planar display;
(b) providing a projection of space in a plane perpendicular to an axis of the instrument on said display, said projection of space including an arbitrary representation of the site, said projection being selected so that said representation of said site is aligned with said representation of the instrument when said axis of said instrument is aligned with said site; and
(c) altering the relative sizes of said site representation relative to said instrument representation as distance between said instrument and said site change. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28)
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29. A method of coordinating a plurality of probes, comprising:
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(a) providing a first probe, a second probe, and a third probe each of which has a field transducer mounted thereon;
(b) performing a first medical procedure at a first location using the first probe;
(c) performing a second medical procedure at a second location using the second probe;
(d) performing a third medical procedure at a third location using the third probe, wherein the third medical procedure is coordinated with the two medical procedures;
(e) determining the relative positions of the probes by transmitting one or more nonionizing fields to or from said field transducers on said probes; and
(f) coordinating the medical procedures using the determined relative positions.
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30. A method of coordinating two probes, comprising;
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(a) providing a first and second probe, each of which has a field transducer mounted thereon, wherein the second probe is an ultrasonic imaging probe;
(b) performing a first medical procedure at a first location using the first probe;
(c) performing a second medical procedure at a second location using the second probe;
(d) determining the relative positions of the probes by transmitting one or more non-ionizing fields to or from said field transducers on said probes; and
(e) coordinating the two medical procedures using the determined relative positions.
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31. A method of coordinating two probes, comprising:
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(a) providing a first and second probe, each of which has a field transducer mounted thereon;
(b) performing a first medical procedure at a first location using the first probe;
(c) performing a second medical procedure at a second location using the second probe;
(d) determining the relative positions of the probes by transmitting one or more non-ionizing fields to or from said field transducers on said probes; and
(e) coordinating the two medical procedures using the determined relative positions wherein the medical procedure performed using said first probe forms debris and said second probe is a vacuuming probe which removes said debris.
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Specification