Device with a prosthesis implantable in the body of a patient

• US 6,485,515 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2001
• Issued: 11/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Boston Scientific Corporation
• Original Assignee: Boston Scientific Corporation
• Inventors: Strecker, Ernst Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Dinh X.
• Application Number:
  US09/884,886
• Publication Number:
  US 20020007208A1
• Time in Patent Office: 525 Days
• Field of Search: 623/1.1, 623/1.11, 623/1.12, 623/1.23, 623/1.38, 623/1.42, 623/1.49, 623/11.11, 606/194, 606/195, 606/196, 606/197, 606/198, 606/199, 606/200
• US Class Current: 623/6.12
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/04 Hollow or tubular parts of organs, e.g. bladders, tracheae, bronchi or bile ducts A61F2/18, A61F2/20 take precedence; devices, other than stent-grafts, providing patency to, or preventing collapsing of, tubular structures of the body other than stent-grafts, e.g. stents A61F2/82; instruments specially adapted for placement or removal of stents or stent-grafts A61F2/95
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/07 Stent-grafts
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/90 characterised by a net-like or mesh-like structure
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/95 Instruments specially adapted for placement or removal of stents or stent-grafts
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/9505 having retaining means other than an outer sleeve, e.g. male-female connector between stent and instrument
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/9511 the retaining means being filaments or wires
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2210/0019 operated at only one temperature whilst inside or touching the human body, e.g. constrained in a non-operative shape during surgery, another temperature only occurring before the operation
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2250/0067 Means for introducing or releasing pharmaceutical products into the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2300/00 Biologically active materials used in bandages, wound dressings, absorbent pads or medical devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 31/005 Ingredients of undetermined constitution or reaction products thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 31/04 Macromolecular materials
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 31/16 Biologically active materials, e.g. therapeutic substances A61L31/047 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: D04B 1/16 synthetic threads
• CPC Class Codes: D04B 9/44 elongated tubular articles of small diameter, e.g. coverings for cables sheathing electric cables H01B13/22
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2403/0114 with one or more yarns appearing predominantly on one face, e.g. plated or paralleled yarns for pile fabrics D03D27/00, D04B1/02, D04B21/02; for intarsia fabrics D04B1/126
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2509/06 Vascular grafts; stents
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 623/903 Blood vessel

Abstract

The device comprises a prosthesis designed as a hollow body compressed against the action of restoring spring forces to a cross section reduced relative to an expanded use position, and held in this position by a strippable sheath. After the sheath is stripped, the prosthesis automatically expands to a cross section corresponding to the use position. The sheath, which can be a meshwork in the approximate form of crocheted material, extends over the entire length of the prosthesis and consists of at least one continuous thread and at least one drawstring. The prosthesis, held in the radially compressed position by the sheath, can be mounted displacebly on a feed wire or non-axially-displacebly on the insertion end of a probe or a catheter.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a medical apparatus self-expandable from a reduced profile to an expanded profile;

a sheath comprising at least one continuous thread, the sheath maintaining the medical apparatus in the reduced profile; and

at least one drawing extending from the sheath for effecting removal of the sheath thereby permitting expansion of the medical apparatus to the expanded profile.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the sheath comprises resorbable thread material and non-resorbable thread material.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the sheath comprises as resorbable thread and a non-resorbable thread.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the medical apparatus is prosthesis.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the medical apparatus is a stent.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the prosthesis is a mesh tube comprising metal material.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the prosthesis includes knitted thread material.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the prosthesis includes crocheted thread material.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the medical apparatus includes a drug capable of being released when the medical apparatus is in the body.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the medical apparatus includes material dissolvable in the body when the medical apparatus is deployed.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the sheath is coated with a dissolvable material.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the thread comprises material visible during x-ray imaging.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the drawstring comprises material visible during x-ray imaging.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the sheath is a mesh.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the system further comprises a catheter onto which the medical apparatus is mounted, the catheter having a proximal end and a distal end, the medical apparatus being disposed at the distal end of the catheter and the drawstring extending toward the proximal end of the catheter.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the sheath is configured to allow the medical apparatus to expand from one axial end to the other.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the catheter has at least one lumen extending from the distal end portion of the catheter to the proximal end portion of the catheter, the drawstring extending through the lumen.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the catheter includes at least one lumen allowing for bodily insertion of the catheter over a guide wire.