Surgery – Truss – Pad
Patent
1989-09-07
1991-04-30
Cohen, Lee S.
Surgery
Truss
Pad
128786, A61N 105
Patent
active
050108948
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an intravascular electrode lead usable for cardiac defibrillation, said lead being of the kind comprising an elongate electrically insulated lead body, and an electrode arrangement carried by said lead body and insertable into an atrial or ventricular cardiac room, said electrode arrangement comprising a number of elongate flexible electrodes which are arranged to be brought into resilient contact with circumferentially spaced portions of the surrounding wall of said room.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An electrode lead of said kind is previously known through U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,656 which discloses an electrode lead having an electrode arrangement which is insertable into a ventricle and which has two elongate defibrillating electrodes which are connected to each other by means of a bent connecting portion. Each one of said two defibrillation electrodes is formed by an electrically conductive wire wound on a portion of the lead body. This construction of the electrode arrangement has several drawbacks. Firstly, as a consequence of the fact that the lead body is utilized as a supporting core for the electrodes, the electrodes will have a comparatively high stiffness which is unfavourable in several respects. Secondly, due to the special shape of the electrode arrangement, it is difficult to place said arrangement in the desired position in the ventricle without running the risk of causing damages on the surrounding tissue. Furthermore, in practice, it is not possible to chose the number of defibrillation electrodes in the electrode arrangement larger than two. Finally, the electrode arrangement can only be placed in a ventricle, while it is not suited to be placed in an atrium as the bent connecting portion could then damage and disturb the cardiac valves.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention has for its purpose to provide an improved electrode lead of the kind initially specified which eliminates the above drawbacks of the known lead above described.
According to the invention, for the above purpose, there is proposed an electrode lead primarily characterized in that said electrode arrangement comprises two or more elongate flexible electrodes which are anchored to the lead body adjacent to each other at their one ends, while, for the rest, they are movable in relation to the lead body in such a manner as to be able to move under the action of spring forces from laterally retracted positions, in which they extend close to each other along their whole length and in which they permit an unobstructed insertion of the electrode arrangement into said room, to laterally expanded positions, in which they may bear resiliently against the surrounding wall of said room.
The above construction of the electrode arrangement of the electrode lead allows the elongate flexible electrodes to be made considerable less stiff than what is possible in the above described known lead. Moreover, the electrode arrangement may be inserted in the desired position in an atrial or ventricular room without difficulty and without running the risk of causing any damage on the surrounding tissue. Additionally, the number of elongate flexible electrodes in the electrode arrangement may be chosen substantially larger than two. Thus, the electrode arrangement may for instance include between four and eight such electrodes.
A special advantage, following from the possibility of increasing the number of electrodes in the electrode arrangement offered through the invention, is that the total contact area between the elongate electrodes and the surrounding wall of the cardiac room in which the electrode arrangement is placed may be considerably increased in an easy manner. This means that one may permit the current pulses supplied by means of said electrodes to have a high amplitude without having to run the risk of causing the current density in the tissue provided in contact with the electrodes to become high enough to cause serious damage on said tissue. In this connection, it co
REFERENCES:
patent: 3865118 (1975-02-01), Bures
patent: 3866615 (1975-02-01), Hawson
patent: 4154247 (1979-05-01), O'Neill
patent: 4289138 (1981-09-01), Halvorsen
patent: 4402328 (1983-09-01), Doring
patent: 4641656 (1987-02-01), Smits
patent: 4660571 (1971-04-01), Hess et al.
Berens et al., "New Stable . . . Loop", A. J. Cardiology, vol. 34, Sep. 1974, pp. 325-332.
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