Shape memory filament for suture management

• US 8,282,658 B2
• Filed: 01/02/2011
• Issued: 10/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Depuy Mitek LLC (Johnson & Johnson)
• Original Assignee: Bernhard Uihlein, Jon Taylor, Stanley O. Thompson, Thomas P. Knapp, Timothy J. Coonahan
• Inventors: Knapp, Thomas P., Uihlein, Bernhard, Thompson, Stanley O., Coonahan, Timothy J., Taylor, Jon
• Primary Examiner(s): McDermott, Corrine M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mashack, Mark
• Application Number:
  US12/983,325
• Publication Number:
  US 20110098742A1
• Time in Patent Office: 646 Days
• Field of Search: 606144-148, 606/151, 606/228, 606/232, 606/113, 606/127, 606/139, 606/213, 606/222, 112/169
• US Class Current: 606/145
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/0401 Suture anchors, buttons or pledgets, i.e. means for attaching sutures to bone, cartilage or soft tissue; Instruments for applying or removing suture anchors A61B17/0642 takes precedence; fixation devices for tendons or ligaments A61F2/0811
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/0485 Devices or means, e.g. loops, for capturing the suture thread and threading it through an opening of a suturing instrument or needle eyelet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/06066 Needles, e.g. needle tip configurations making needles B21G1/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/06166 Sutures suture materials A61L17/00; manufacture of artificial threads D01D; treatment of threads D06M
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00867 shape memory effect for prostheses A61F2210/0014
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/061 hollow or tubular suture extending inside a hollow needle A61B2017/06052; hollow sutures A61B2017/06185

Abstract

A member of a rigid flexible elastic material, the member including a body portion and an aperture portion with the member adapted for delivery through an axial longitudinal channel of a percutaneous delivery subsystem, the aperture portion including an expanded mode having a lateral dimension greater than an inner diameter of the channel when the aperture portion extends outside the channel and a collapsed mode wherein the lateral dimension is not greater than the inner diameter of the channel when the aperture portion is within the channel, the channel including a first axial opening and a second axial opening with the aperture portion transitioning from the expanded mode to the collapsed mode when inserted into the openings and the aperture transitioning from the collapsed mode to the expanded mode when exiting from the openings.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

inserting a percutaneous structure no greater than 18 gauge into a body portion by piercing said body portion with a sharp tip of said structure, said structure including a channel having a first opening positioned outside said body portion and a second opening positioned inside said body portion;

delivering a member into said channel, said member formed by a pair of shape memory alloy elements wound about each other and having an aperture portion including an aperture between said elements, said aperture is collapsed when inserted into said first opening;

extending said aperture portion out of the second opening to automatically expand said aperture to form a predetermined perimeter having N number of hard discrete bends, wherein N is an even number that is 6 or greater.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

placing a first end of a suture into said aperture; and

thereafter

withdrawing said aperture portion, including said first end of said suture, from inside said body portion to provide said first end of said suture outside said body portion while a second end of said suture remains inside said body portion.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said withdrawing step includes removing said structure from said body portion while said aperture portion remains inside said body portion and thereafter withdrawing said aperture portion.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said withdrawing step includes gripping said first end with a scissoring trap of said aperture formed from a collapse of said predetermined perimeter while said aperture portion is withdrawn, said scissoring trap releasing said first end when said aperture portion has been withdrawn and expands to reproduce said predetermined perimeter.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein N is equal to 6.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein N is equal to 8.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said predetermined perimeter is a generalized elongated hexagon shape.