Drug delivery and catheter systems, apparatus and processes
First Claim
1. A tube for delivering materials to internal tissue of a patient, said tube comprising a lumen for carrying the material, holes from said lumen to an exterior surface of the tube, and control elements comprising a movable element within the lumen for modifying flow rates of the material from said lumen through said holes.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A class of customizable injection devices or delivery instruments whose basic form is a stiff tube with holes of user-selectable size at several user-selectable places is described. The use of this device includes a method of selection and construction of a particular device from such a class of devices for a particular treatment procedure using computer-assisted means. Thus, the user may make selections among available or creatable choices (such as selection of hole size, selection of hole location, number of holes, etc.), and a method can be practiced for making such user-selection serve the goals of delivery of materials such as drugs, cells, or of devices sufficiently small and numerous to be delivered in fluid suspension. The tube should be relatively stiff in the sense that it deflects by no more than an amount between 0° and 15° under the stresses of insertion and placement at the end of a catheter, and varies less than 5 or less than 10% per cent in cross-sectional area when so deflected to the maximum of about 15 degrees.
136 Citations
12 Claims
- 1. A tube for delivering materials to internal tissue of a patient, said tube comprising a lumen for carrying the material, holes from said lumen to an exterior surface of the tube, and control elements comprising a movable element within the lumen for modifying flow rates of the material from said lumen through said holes.
- 7. A tube for delivering materials to internal tissue of a patient, said tube comprising a lumen for carrying the material, holes from said lumen to an exterior surface of the tube, and control elements comprising a movable element on the exterior surface of the lumen for modifying flow rates of the material from said lumen through said holes wherein at least one control element comprises a membrane that can be moved relative to a hole to modify a flow rate through that hole.
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12. A tube for delivering materials to internal tissue of a patient, said tube comprising a lumen for carrying the material, holes from said lumen to an exterior surface of the tube, and control elements comprising a movable element on the exterior surface of the lumen for modifying flow rates of the material from said lumen through said holes where said tube is assembled from a set of cylindrical sub-units, at least two of said cylindrical subunits having different arrangements of side holes that may overlay each other.
Specification