Stent prosthesis for vascular surgery in particular in the area of the aortic arch

• US 8,123,796 B2
• Filed: 02/16/2006
• Issued: 02/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Piotr Kasprzak
• Original Assignee: Piotr Kasprzak
• Inventors: Kasprzak, Piotr
• Primary Examiner(s): Pellegrino, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Swaminathan, Seema
• Application Number:
  US11/816,605
• Publication Number:
  US 20080167703A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,203 Days
• Field of Search: 623/1.11, 623/1.13, 623/1.15, 623/1.23, 623/903
• US Class Current: 623/1.34
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/07 Stent-grafts
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/89 the wire-like elements comprising two or more adjacent rings flexibly connected by separate members
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/061 provided with means for allowing access to secondary lumens
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/075 the stent being loosely attached to the graft material, e.g. by stitching
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2250/0098 radio-opaque, e.g. radio-opaque markers
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 623/903 Blood vessel

Abstract

A stent prosthesis for vascular surgery for inserting into an artery, particularly for bridging a vascular enlargement in the area of the aortic arch, comprising a tubular flexible and radially expandable stent body, on which at least one tear-proof long thread is attached in a fixed manner at a point of attachment on the outer peripheral surface of the stent body in the front portion thereof The thread can be recognized under x-ray radiation and has a free thread length of a number of decimeters and, starting from the point of attachment, is exposed outside the stent body so that the stent body, while following the thread, can be passed into the artery and can be placed, by means of the thread, in position inside the artery and can be subsequently fixed to the vascular wall.

Claims

1. A stent prosthesis for vascular surgery for inserting into an artery to bridge and by-pass a vascular enlargement of the artery, comprising a tubular flexible and radially expandable stent body having a front end and a rear end that is spaced from the front end by a tube length, the stent body including along said tube length a tubular peripheral liquid-proof sheathing that is liquid-proof against liquid blood along said tube length and has a peripheral outer surface along said tube length, the tubular sheathing configured to be radially expandable with respect to a longitudinal axis of the tubular sheathing from a radially folded condition to an unfolded condition during said insertion into the artery to open an inside channel longitudinally through the sheathing and to sealingly attach itself around an inner wall of the artery in front of and behind the vascular enlargement in the artery to bridge the vascular enlargement in the artery by the liquid-proof tubular sheathing and bypass the vascular enlargement through said inside channel, the stent prosthesis further comprising at least one tear-proof long thread, the tear-proof thread including a fixed end and a free end, wherein the fixed end is permanently and fixedly attached to the sheathing in a tear-proof manner at a point of attachment located directly on the outer surface of the sheathing in a distance from the front end and from the rear end of the stent body, the long thread including a material that is visible in x-ray radiation and having a free thread length that extends from the fixed end of the long thread up to the free end thereof, wherein the free thread length includes the free end and is freely exposed outside the stent body, and the free thread length of the long thread is of several decimeters configured to be passed with the free end of the thread as a leading end into the artery in advance of passing the stent body into the artery and further configured to be caught in the artery by a surgical appliance and extracted out from the artery by the surgical appliance through an auxiliary puncture of a vascular wall, the long thread further configured to resist pulling forces applied onto the free thread length for manipulation of the implanted stent body to be aligned and placed in position in the artery and for a subsequent fixation of the stent body to the vascular wall by means of the extracted free thread length, wherein the fixed end of the long thread is fixedly attached to the sheathing in such a tear-proof manner that the fixed end cannot get detached from the stent body by applying said pulling forces onto the free thread length.

2. A stent prosthesis as claimed in claim 1, wherein the long thread is a double-thread.

3. A stent prosthesis as claimed in claim 1, wherein a first lateral opening is provided through the peripheral sheathing of the stent body into the inside channel, the first lateral opening configured to keep a portion of the stent body, when inserted into the artery, at a location of the artery clear where a side artery branches off, and the point of attachment of the long thread is located on the peripheral sheathing in a short distance from the lateral opening.

4. A stent prosthesis as claimed in claim 3, wherein the point of attachment of the long thread is located on the peripheral sheathing of the stent body on that side of the first lateral opening that is averted from the front end of the stent body.

5. A stent prosthesis as claimed in claim 4, wherein said at least one tear-proof long thread includes a second tear-proof long thread that is permanently and fixedly attached in said tear proof manner at the peripheral sheathing at a second point of attachment at that side of the first lateral opening that faces the front end of the peripheral sheathing of the stent body.

6. A stent prosthesis as claimed in claim 1, wherein a lateral opening is provided through the peripheral sheathing of the stent body into the inside channel, the first lateral opening configured to keep a portion of the stent body, when inserted into the artery, at a location of the artery clear where a side artery branches off, and the peripheral sheathing includes a sleeve portion configured to extend the lateral opening outside of the peripheral outer surface of the sheathing, wherein the point of attachment of the long thread is arranged on the sleeve portion.

7. A stent prosthesis as claimed in claim 3, wherein a second lateral opening is formed through the peripheral sheathing into the inside channel, the second lateral opening configured to allow insertion of a monitoring catheter through the second lateral opening into the inside channel, wherein the second lateral opening is offset from the first lateral opening in the circumferential direction of the peripheral sheathing and offset from the first opening in an axial direction towards the rear end of the stent body.

9. A stent prosthesis as claimed in claim 1, wherein said at least one tear-proof long thread includes a plurality of tear-proof long threads separately attached in a tear-proof manner at different points of attachment of the peripheral outer surface of the sheathing.

8. A vascular surgery method for implanting a stent prosthesis at an application site in an artery by inserting the stent prosthesis into and through the artery to bridge and by-pass a vascular enlargement of the artery, wherein the stent prosthesis comprises a tubular flexible and radially expandable stent body having a front end and a rear end that is spaced from the front end by a tube length, and including along said tube length a tubular peripheral liquid-proof sheathing that is liquid-proof against liquid blood along said tube length and that has an outer peripheral surface along said tube length, the sheathing configured to be radially expandable with respect to a longitudinal axis of the tubular sheathing from a radially folded condition to an unfolded condition during said insertion into the artery to open an inside channel longitudinally through the sheathing and to sealingly attach itself around an inner wall of the artery in front and behind the vascular enlargement in the artery to bridge the vascular enlargement by the liquid-proof sheathing and bypass the vascular enlargement through said inside channel, the method comprising:

permanently fixing at least one tear-proof long thread with an end thereof to the outer peripheral surface of the sheathing in a tear-proof manner at a point of attachment located directly on the outer surface of the sheathing in a distance from the front end and from the rear end of the stent body, the long thread including a material that is visible in x-ray radiation and having a free thread length of several decimeters that extends from the fixed end of the long thread up to a free end of the long thread and includes the free end and that is freely exposed outside the outer peripheral surface of the sheathing,

inserting the stent prosthesis into the artery by passing the free end of the free thread length of the at least one long thread and subsequently the free thread length into streaming blood in the artery in advance of the stent body and passing the stent body into the artery subsequently to the free thread length, catching the free thread length in the artery by a surgical appliance in a region of the application site and subsequently extracting the free thread length by the surgical appliance from the artery through an auxiliary puncture of a vascular wall, and

manipulating the stent body in the artery by pulling on the extracted free thread length of the long thread during passing of the stent body into the artery in such a manner that the stent body is placed and aligned in the artery at the application site into a predetermined position, followed by fixing the extracted free thread length to the vascular wall after the stent body is fixed in the predetermined position.