Axial lengthening thrombus capture system

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems and methods to remove material of interest, including blood clots, from a body region, including but not limited to the circulatory system for the treatment of pulmonary embolism (PE), deep vein thrombosis (DVT), cerebrovascular embolism, and other vascular occlusions.

Description

PRIORITY CLAIM[0001]This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) as a nonprovisional application of each of U.S. Provisional App. No. 62 / 202,074 filed on Aug. 6, 2015, 62 / 273,418 filed on Dec. 30, 2015, and 62 / 345,863 filed on Jun. 6, 2016, each of which is incorporated by reference in their entireties.BACKGROUND[0002]Field of the Invention[0003]The invention relates to, in some aspects, systems and methods to remove materials of interest, including blood clots, from a body region, including but not limited to the circulatory system for the treatment of pulmonary embolism (PE), deep vein thrombosis (DVT), cerebrovascular embolism, and other vascular occlusions.[0004]Description of the Related Art[0005]It is understood that undesirable materials such as blood clots (which could be referred to as thrombi, thromboemboli, or emboli herein) in the blood vessels may partially or completely occlude blood vessels in areas of the coronary, cerebrovascular, pulmonary, periphera...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017]In some embodiments, a method of performing a thrombectomy can include, for example, accessing the interior of a blood vessel; advancing an expanding guiding catheter through the blood vessel; positioning the expanding guiding catheter such that a distal end of the device is proximal to a thrombus; retracting the expanding guide catheter outer member to expand a funnel tip and exposing an expandable inner member; advancing a thrombus capture device comprising a capture assembly through the expanding guide catheter; positioning the thrombus capture device such that a distal end of the device is distal to or within the thrombus; and actuating the capture assembly to isolate the thrombus within the capture device. The capture assembly can be mo...

Problems solved by technology

While thrombolytic agents can be effective in dissolving blood clots, they require a long time duration in order for the agents to dissolve the blood clots; thus patients may need to remain in the hospital intensive care unit (ICU) during thrombolytic infusion.

Relatively long lengths of stay can increase healthcare costs significantly.

A major limitation for these thrombolytic agents is that they can potentially cause intracranial, gastrointestinal, retroperitoneal, and pericardial bleeding, among other sites, which can be often life-threatening and cause significant morbidity and mortality risks.

However, current mechanical therapies have some major limitations.

The debris removed from mechanical treatment can travel distally creating additional embolization.

The small size devices are unable to remove large amount of blood clots in short time periods thus patients may become hemodynamically instable.

Catheter-based removal of blood clots from larger blood vessels (e.g., pulmonary arteries) have had limited success compared to smaller blood vessels (e.g., coronary arteries).

Fragmentation thrombectomy breaks blood clots into smaller pieces, most of which travel further downstream, resulting in distal embolization.

This method poses risk of hemolysis.

This procedure is therefore time-consuming and inefficient.

Once the blood clots are broken into small pieces, the debris can migrate dista...

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