Catheter with high speed moving working head for in-body surgical procedures

Abstract

Abstract Flexible, small diameter catheter (20, 200) for effecting various surgical procedures, such as opening a restriction formed of an undesirable material, e.g., atherosclerotic plaque, in a lumen, e.g., an artery, of a living being, dilating a duct or tube, e.g., a fallopian tube, eustachian tube, bile duct, etc., in a living being and destroying a stone, e.g., kidney stone, gall stone, in the body of a living being. One embodiment of the catheter (20) includes a working head (24) having at least one non-sharp impacting surface (24A, 24B) arranged to be moved, e.g., rotated, at a high rate of speed by an associated drive means (22) within the catheter. The catheter with the moving working head is brought into engagement to effect the opening of the restriction by dilating the artery and/or removing undesirable material therefrom. The removal of undesirable material results from the impacting surface impacting the material of the restriction repeatedly. A fluid (27) is provided through the catheter to the working head and a portion is thrown radially outward. The fluid at the working head also flows in a vortex (31) to carry any particles broken off from the restriction back to the moving working head where they are impacted again and again to further reduce their size. Such action creates particles of sufficiently small size that they may be enabled to flow distally without significant deleterious effects to distally located tissue. One can effect the in situ valvulectomy of a section of vein within a living being using the catheters of this invention. In still another method, another embodiment of the catheter is used to disintegrate a stone, such as a kidney or gall stone, in the body of a living being. In another method, the catheters of this invention are used to stop spasm in a lumen in a living being.

Inventors

• 👤 Kenneth Kensey
• 👤 John Nash

Bibliographic Details