Surgery – Instruments – Means for inserting or removing conduit within body
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-16
2004-05-25
Truong, Kevin T. (Department: 3731)
Surgery
Instruments
Means for inserting or removing conduit within body
Reexamination Certificate
active
06740094
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to actuators and in particular to a shape memory polymer actuator.
2. State of Technology
U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,868 for an expandable intravascular occlusion material removal devices and methods of use, by Ressemann et al, patented Nov. 17, 1998, provides the following description: “The present invention generally relates to constructions for intravascular treatment devices useful for removing vascular occlusion material from a vascular occlusion or from a vascular lumen. The invention more specifically relates to expandable intravascular occlusion material removal devices, as well as to methods of using those devices to treat vascular diseases.
Vascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis and the like, have become quite prevalent in the modern day. These diseases may present themselves in a number of forms. Each form of vascular disease may require a different method of treatment to reduce or cure the harmful effects of the disease. Vascular diseases, for example, may take the form of deposits or growths in a patient's vasculature which may restrict, in the case of a partial occlusion, or stop, in the case of a total occlusion, blood flow to a certain portion of the patient's body. This can be particularly serious if, for example, such an occlusion occurs in a portion of the vasculature that supplies vital organs with blood or other necessary fluids.
To treat these diseases, a number of different therapies are being developed. While a number of invasive therapies are available, it is desirable to develop non-invasive therapies as well. Non-invasive therapies may be less risky than invasive ones, and may be more welcomed by the patient because of the possibility of decreased chances of infection, reduced post-operative pain, and less post-operative rehabilitation. One type of non-invasive therapy for vascular diseases is pharmaceutical in nature. Clot-busting drugs have been employed to help break up blood clots which may be blocking a particular vascular lumen. Other drug therapies are also available. Further non-invasive, intravascular treatments exist that are not only pharmaceutical, but also revascularize blood vessels or lumens by mechanical means. Two examples of such intravascular therapies are balloon angioplasty and atherectomy which physically revascularize a portion of a patient's vasculature.
Balloon angioplasty comprises a procedure wherein a balloon catheter is inserted intravascularly into a patient through a relatively small puncture, which may be located proximate the groin, and intravascularly navigated by a treating physician to the occluded vascular site. The balloon catheter includes a balloon or dilating member which is placed adjacent the vascular occlusion and then is inflated. Intravascular inflation of the dilating member by sufficient pressures, on the order of 5 to 12 atmospheres or so, causes the balloon to displace the occluding matter to revascularize the occluded lumen and thereby restore substantially normal blood flow through the revascularized portion of the vasculature. It is to be noted, however, that this procedure does not remove the occluding matter from the patient's vasculature, but displaces it.
While balloon angioplasty is quite successful in substantially revascularizing many vascular lumens by reforming the occluding material, other occlusions may be difficult to treat with angioplasty. Specifically, some intravascular occlusions may be composed of an irregular, loose or heavily calcified material which may extend relatively far along a vessel or may extend adjacent a side branching vessel, and thus are not prone or susceptible to angioplastic treatment. Even if angioplasty is successful, thereby revascularizing the vessel and substantially restoring normal blood flow therethrough, there is a chance that the occlusion may recur. Recurrence of an occlusion may require repeated or alternative treatments given at the same intravascular site.
Accordingly, attempts have been made to develop other alternative mechanical methods of non-invasive, intravascular treatment in an effort to provide another way of revascularizing an occluded vessel and of restoring blood flow through the relevant vasculature. These alternative treatments may have particular utility with certain vascular occlusions, or may provide added benefits to a patient when combined with balloon angioplasty and/or drug therapies.
One such alternative mechanical treatment method involves removal, not displacement, as is the case with balloon angioplasty, of the material occluding a vascular lumen. Such treatment devices, sometimes referred to as atherectomy devices, use a variety of means, such as lasers, and rotating cutters or ablaters, for example, to remove the occluding material. The rotating cutters may be particularly useful in removing certain vascular occlusions. Since vascular occlusions may have different compositions and morphology or shape, a given removal or cutting element may not be suitable for removal of a certain occlusion. Alternatively, if a patient has multiple occlusions in his vasculature, a given removal element may be suitable for removing only one of the occlusions. Suitability of a particular cutting element may be determined by, for example, its size or shape. Thus, a treating physician may have to use a plurality of different treatment devices to provide the patient with complete treatment. This type of procedure can be quite expensive because multiple pieces of equipment may need to be used (such intravascular devices are not reusable because they are inserted directly into the blood stream), and may be tedious to perform because multiple pieces of equipment must be navigated through an often-tortuous vascular path to the treatment site.”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,415, for an apparatus for removing blood clots from arteries and veins, by Guenther et al, patented Apr. 7, 1992, provides the folowing description: “A triple catheter for removing of blood clots from arteries and veins is equipped with an outer catheter that can be inserted into a blood vessel and an inner catheter with an inflatable baloon at its distal end that can be inserted into the outer catheter. The inner catheter is surrounded by an intermediate catheter also inserted into the outer catheter. The intermediate catheter has a radially expandable distal end receptacle made of an elastic mesh structure of spring wires or plastic monofilaments covered by or embedded in an elastic plastic coating. A very small puncture channel is required for the insertion of such a triple catheter through the wall of a blood vessel.”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,564 for microfabricated therapeutic actuator mechanisms, by Northrup et al, patented Jul. 8, 1997, provides the folowing description: “Electromechanical microstructures (microgrippers), either integrated circuit (IC) silicon-based or precision machined, to extend and improve the application of catheter-based interventional therapies for the repair of aneurysms in the brain or other interventional clinical therapies. These micromechanisms can be specifically applied to release platinum coils or other materials into bulging portions of the blood vessels also known as aneurysms. The “micro” size of the release mechanism is necessary since the brain vessels are the smallest in the body. Through a catheter more than one meter long, the micromechanism located at one end of the catheter can be manipulated from the other end thereof. The microgripper (micromechanism) of the invention will also find applications in non-medical areas where a remotely actuated microgripper or similar actuator would be useful or where micro-assembling is needed.”
U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,917 for a shape memory polymer (SMP) gripper with a release sensing system, by Maitland et al, patented Aug. 15, 2000, provides the following description: “A system for releasing a target material, such as an embolic coil from an SMP located at the end of a catheter utilizing an optical arrangement for
Decker Derek E.
Jungreis Charles A.
Lee Abraham P.
Maitland Duncan J.
Matthews Dennis L.
Scott Eddie E.
The Regents of the University of California
Thompson Alan H.
Truong Kevin T.
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