Active suture for the delivery of therapeutic fluids

• US 8,257,393 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2003
• Issued: 09/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ethicon Incorporated (Johnson & Johnson)
• Original Assignee: Ethicon Incorporated (Johnson & Johnson)
• Inventors: Cichocki, Frank Richard Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Houston, Elizabeth
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dang, Anh
• Application Number:
  US10/727,367
• Publication Number:
  US 20050125034A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,197 Days
• Field of Search: 606228-231, 604/890.1, 604/140, 604/93.01, 604/264, 604272-274, 604/411, 604/4, 424/443, 572/37, 572/43, 572/20
• US Class Current: 606/228
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/0469 Suturing instruments for use in minimally invasive surgery, e.g. endoscopic surgery
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/06166 Sutures suture materials A61L17/00; manufacture of artificial threads D01D; treatment of threads D06M
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/0404 Buttons
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/0458 Longitudinal through hole, e.g. suture blocked by a distal suture knot
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/0464 for soft tissue
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/0475 using sutures having a slip knot
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/06185 hollow or tubular hollow suture needles A61B2017/061
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 37/00 Other apparatus for introducing media into the body for reproduction or fertilisation A61B17/425; apparatus for iontophoresis or cataphoresis A61N1/30; Percutany, i.e. introducing medicines into the body by diffusion through the skin salt baths A61H33/04

Abstract

An active suture that can be used for both wound closure and the delivery of therapeutic fluids to the tissue surrounding a wound is disclosed. The active suture may include a connector designed to join a fluid source, such as a syringe or conventional IV delivery system, to an internal passageway that is embedded within a braided suture. The internal passageway may be comprised of a fine polymeric tube and is capable of conducting and emitting a fluid into at least a portion of the braided suture and surrounding tissue. The invention enables delivery of an efficacious volume of drug bearing solution on the order of milliliters per day, provides a high level of fluid delivery rate control enabling the physician to start or stop drug administration at his/her discretion, and offers a means of providing more than one type of medication that may be selected post-surgically in accord with unexpected patient symptoms that may arise.

Claims

1. An active suture comprising

a braided suture having proximal and distal ends and an outer diameter, said braided suture having a plurality of interstices along at least a portion of its length;

and

at least one passageway coaxial with at least a portion of the braided suture, and having proximal and distal ends and a diameter that is less than the outer diameter of the braided suture and having one or more openings therein so that said at least one passageway conducts fluid to said plurality of interstices of said braided suture;

wherein the distal end of the at least one passageway is disposed between the proximal and distal ends of the braided suture.

2. The active suture of claim 1, where the at least one passageway is a lumen of a tube.

3. The active suture of claim 2, where the tube has one or more holes that connect the lumen to the outer surface of the tube.

4. The active suture of claim 1, wherein said internal passageway comprises a polymer tube.

5. The active suture of claim 4, wherein the active suture can be tied into a surgeon'"'"'s knot without collapse of the polymer tube at the location of said knot.

6. The active suture of claim 5, wherein the polymer is a bioabsorbable polymer.

7. The active suture of claim 5, wherein the polymer is a non-absorbable polymer.

8. The active suture of claim 7, wherein the polymer is polypropylene and the ratio of the outer diameter of the tube to the inner diameter of the tube is greater than 1.7.

9. The active suture of claim 7, wherein the polymer is polyethylene or polytetrafluoroethylene and the ratio of the outer diameter of the tube to the inner diameter of the tube is greater than 2.0.

10. The active suture of claim 1, wherein said internal passageway comprises a fiber tow coated with a polymer coating.