Support assembly for a blood vessel or like organ

Claim 1

A support assembly for a blood vessel or like hollow, tubular organ having an opening therein and primarily designed for placement within the vessel during closing of the opening, said assembly comprising: (a) a roll formed from a length of strand wound upon itself to form windings, said windings collectively defining the configuration of said roll, (b) said roll dimensioned and configured to define an outer surface disposable in supporting engagement with an inner surface of the vessel, (c) a pigtail defined by a distal extremity of said length of strand and disposed to extend outwardly from said roll through the vessel and exteriorly thereof, (d) a roller having an elongated configuration disposable on the interior of the vessel between said outer surface of said roll and an inner surface of the vessel, (e) said roller movable along said outer surface in a substantially circular path of travel about the outer circumference of said roll and movably disposed along said path of travel in continuous, supporting relation to the inner surface of the vessel, (f) said roll and said roller relatively dimensioned and disposed to define an operative space therebetween, said operative space movable along with said roll, circumferentially about said roll and in contiguous, communicating relation to the opening in the vessel, whereby the opening in the vessel is closed through utilization of said space and support of peripheral portion of the opening by said roll and roller; (g) said roller longitudinally slidable through a first unclosed portion of the opening and said roll passable through a second unclosed portion of the opening upon becoming unrolled upon application of pulling tension to the pigtail, (h) whereby both said roll and said roller are independently removable from the vessel subsequent to closure of all but the first and the second unclosed portions of the opening.