Stent delivery system and method of use

US6196230A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Percardia, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Todd Hall · Goshen, US
• Greg Furnish · Louisville, US
• Simon Furnish · New York, US
• Scott J. Wolf · Menlo Park, US
• Peter J. Wilk · New York, US
• David Y. Phelps · Louisville, US
• Vincent Pompili · Carmel, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 10, 1998
• Grant date: Mar 6, 2001
• Expiry date: Sep 10, 2018

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S623/903
• WIPO field: Medical technology
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Described herein are various methods and apparatuses for delivering stents and other devices into the myocardium of a patient. One preferred stent delivery system provides access to the insertion site in the myocardium by advancing a delivery catheter through a blockage in a coronary artery, or around the blockage through a coronary vein or through a channel or tunnel formed around the blockage. In one embodiment, once the distal end of the delivery catheter is adjacent the myocardium, an angled bend is created in the catheter by actuating expandable steering guides mounted to the catheter which cooperate with the walls of the blood vessel to cause the catheter to turn. Then, a guidewire is advanced through the delivery catheter and into the myocardium. In another embodiment, a tip-deflecting pull wire extends from the distal end of the delivery catheter which may be actuated to turn towards and then inserted into the myocardium. In another embodiment, an exit port facing the insertion site is provided within the catheter or a balloon mounted on the catheter so that a guidewire may be directed through a lumen and out the exit port into the myocardium. Once the guidewire punctures i…