Implant delivery device

• US 8,092,509 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2010
• Issued: 01/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Angiomed GmbH & Co. Medizintechnik KG
• Original Assignee: Angiomed GmbH & Co. Medizintechnik KG
• Inventors: Dorn, Jürgen, Feeser, Jörg
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Victor
• Application Number:
  US12/785,392
• Publication Number:
  US 20100280596A1
• Time in Patent Office: 599 Days
• Field of Search: 606/108, 606/194, 606/198, 623/1.11, 623/1.23, 623/1.12, 604/103, 604/103.1
• US Class Current: 623/1.11
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/958 Inflatable balloons for placing stents or stent-grafts
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/041 Bile ducts
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2250/0098 radio-opaque, e.g. radio-opaque markers

Abstract

Disclosed is a system for delivering self-expanding stents to stenting sites within the body, which minimizes trauma to the affected tissue of the patient yet, at the same time, offers the medical practitioner a robust and simple system for stent placement. These technical effects are achieved by providing a catheter which receives the stent at its proximal end and guides it to the stenting site. The catheter serves as a guide catheter and has a tapered distal tip from which the stent emerges at the site of stenting. A stent pusher can be used which abuts the proximal end of the stent inside the guide catheter. The tapered tip can be molded and can be integral with the catheter shaft or bonded to it. The guide catheter can include a figurated portion towards its distal tip. The system has particular application to stenting the carotid artery.

Claims

1. A stent delivery system, comprising:

an outer sheath for insertion into a body defining a lumen and including a proximal end, a distal end, and a distal tip zone at a distal end of the system, the distal tip zone being contiguous with and affixed to the distal end of the sheath, the distal tip zone tapering radially inwardly and including a stretch zone; and

an inner shaft being at least partially disposed in the lumen and including a first marker band initially disposed within the lumen, wherein an outside diameter of the inner shaft distal the first marker band is less than an outside diameter of the inner shaft proximal the first marker band,

wherein the outer sheath includes a second marker band disposed over the distal end of the sheath adjacent a proximal end of the distal tip zone,

wherein the inner shaft includes a third marker band disposed distal of the first marker band at an initial axial location corresponding to the second marker band, and

wherein the distal tip zone is configured and attached to the distal end of the sheath such that proximally withdrawing the distal end of the sheath over a stent proximally withdraws the distal tip zone over the stent.

2. The stent delivery system according to claim 1, wherein the outside diameter of the inner shaft distal the first marker band is generally constant along its length.

3. The stent delivery system according to claim 1, wherein the distal tip zone comprises an axially oriented slit.

4. The stent delivery system according to claim 1, wherein the distal tip zone comprises two axially oriented slits arranged diametrically opposite each other.

5. The stent delivery system according to claim 1, wherein the distal tip zone has a wall thickness this progressively decreases toward a distal end thereof.

6. The stent delivery system according to claim 1, wherein the distal tip zone comprises a plurality of spaced apart thickness reduction zones arranged axially along the distal tip zone.

7. The stent delivery system according to claim 1, wherein the second and third radiopaque marker bands comprise a platinum-iridium material.

8. The stent delivery system according to claim 1, wherein the distal tip zone is radiopaque.

9. The stent delivery system according to claim 8, wherein the distal tip zone comprises barium sulfate.