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  Stent deployment systems and methodsUSPTO Application #: 20070088420Title: Stent deployment systems and methods Abstract: A stent deployment system includes a catheter shaft, an expandable member mounted to the catheter shaft, and one or more stents or stent segments slidably positioned on the expandable member. The stent deployment system is adapted for deployment of stents or stent segments in very long lesions and in tapered and curved vessels. The stent deployment system facilitates slidable movement of a stent in a distal direction relative to the expandable member while inhibiting slidable movement in a proximal direction relative to the expandable member. (end of abstract) Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew, LLP (client No 021629-000000) - San Francisco, CA, US Inventors: Bernard Andreas, David W. Snow, Jeffry J. Grainger USPTO Applicaton #: 20070088420 - Class: 623001110 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Prosthesis (i.e., Artificial Body Members), Parts Thereof, Or Aids And Accessories Therefor, Arterial Prosthesis (i.e., Blood Vessel), Stent Combined With Surgical Delivery System (e.g., Surgical Tools, Delivery Sheath, Etc.) The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070088420. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/458,062 (Attorney Docket No. 021629-001800US), filed on Jun. 9, 2003, the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] In coronary artery disease, stenotic plaques form within the coronary arteries, restricting and in some cases completely blocking blood flow to the heart muscle. In recent years, a number of different catheter-based interventions have been developed to treat coronary artery disease, including percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and stenting. PTCA involves the placement of an endovascular catheter into the diseased coronary artery and expanding a balloon within the stenotic lesion to dilate the lumen, thereby improving blood flow through the treated area. One drawback of PTCA has been the tendency in some cases for the coronary artery lumen to "restenose" following dilatation, wherein plaque reforms at the treatment site to narrow or block the lumen. Coronary stenting has been developed in part to address this restenosis problem. In coronary stenting, a tubular stent is positioned within the coronary lesion using an endovascular delivery catheter. The stent is expanded within the lesion and implanted in its expanded state, maintaining the patency of the arterial lumen. [0003] Even after stenting, however, some patients experience restenosis. While the causes of restenosis are not fully understood, a number of different technologies have been developed to reduce restenosis following stenting. One such technology that has shown a great deal of promise is the use of drug-coated stents that gradually elute anti-stenosis agents into the wall of the coronary artery. Another approach is the use of radioactive stents that deter cell proliferation at the treatment site. A further approach involves the optimization stent geometry and maximizing stent flexibility to reduce the vascular response that results in cell proliferation following stent placement. [0004] With these new stent technologies showing promising reductions in restenosis rates, stents may begin to be used in new and different ways. Stents may be used in arteries of shape and size heretofore untreatable, both in the coronary vasculature and in other parts of the body. Stents of substantially greater length may be used to treat longer lesions than has been possible before. Stents may be used to "pave" long sections of diseased or disease-prone arteries. Stents may be deployed in arteries that are much smaller than could be stented before, in highly curved vessels, as well as in more tapered vessels. [0005] Current stents and stent deployment devices, however, are not well-suited to address these new potential applications for stents. For example, current stents are designed for treating relatively short lesions, and often are not suitable for longer lesions through which the vessel may be curved, tapered or have other complex geometries. Likewise, current stent deployment catheters function effectively to deliver stents of relatively short length in shorter vascular lesions, but they do not perform well in treating longer, tapered, and/or curved vessels. For example in tapered vessels, current stent deployment catheters may fail to fully expand the stent at its proximal end, while potentially over-expanding the stent at its distal end. Moreover, current stent and stent delivery technology is limited to deploying stents of predetermined length, requiring advance selection of a stent and associated catheter to match the lesion to be treated. Following introduction of the device, should the user wish to treat a longer section of the vessel, the user must remove the delivery catheter from the body and exchange it for a different catheter having a longer stent, or attempt to deploy multiple stents in close proximity to one another, each requiring introduction of new delivery catheter. [0006] What is needed, therefore, is a stent delivery catheter suitable for deployment of long or short stents in long or short vascular lesions and in curved or tapered vessels. The stent delivery catheter should be further adapted for delivering multiple independent, stents or stent segments simultaneously or serially, as well as for selecting and deploying a stent of desired length without removing the delivery catheter from the body. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] The present invention provides stent delivery catheters, systems and methods for deploying stents in body lumens. While the invention will have application in a number of different vessels in various parts of the body, the invention is particularly well-suited for stenting of the coronary arteries, saphenous veins and other grafts, and peripheral arteries including the carotid and femoral arteries. The invention is particularly advantageous in its ability to deploy stents in relatively long vascular lesions that have tapers, curves, or other complex geometries. Moreover, in a preferred embodiment, the invention enables the user to select and deploy one or more stents of desired length in situ without removing or exchanging catheters. [0008] In a first aspect, the invention provides a stent deployment system for deploying one or more stents in a vessel, the stent deployment system including an elongated catheter with an expandable member near its distal end. The expandable member has proximal and distal extremities with different expanded diameters. In one embodiment, suited for use in tapered vessels, the proximal extremity has an expanded diameter larger than the expanded diameter of the distal extremity. A plurality of independent stent segments is slidably positionable on the proximal and distal extremities for expansion therewith, each stent segment being independently expandable to an expanded diameter potentially different than at least one other stent segment. The expandable member has an outer surface suitable for slidable advancement of the stent segments thereon from the proximal extremity to the distal extremity. [0009] In various embodiments, proximal and distal extremities may be tapered, stepped, non-tapered (constant diameter), or combinations thereof. The proximal and distal extremities may be contiguous with one another, or may be separated by a portion of the expandable member. Between the proximal and distal extremities, the expandable member may be non-tapered, tapered at a constant or variable slope, or it may include two or more cylindrical steps of decreasing diameter. Alternatively, the expandable member may include a combination of tapered sections and stepped sections, or tapered sections and non-tapered sections. The outer surface of the expandable member is preferably configured to allow the stent segments to be slidably advanced toward the distal end of the expandable member (or the expandable member slidably retracted proximally relative to the stent segments) when the expandable member is in an unexpanded condition. This enables the user to position the desired number of stent segments to be deployed over the expandable member, thereby facilitating in situ customization of stent length. Further, following deployment of a stent or series of stent segments, an additional stent or series of segments may then be slidably positioned on the expandable member for subsequent deployment. [0010] In an exemplary embodiment, either or both of the first and second extremities of the expandable member have an axial length selected to accommodate a pre-selected number of stent segments. For example, in stepped embodiments, each cylindrical step of the expandable member may be configured to accommodate one stent segment. Alternatively, the expandable member may have a non-tapered or less tapered distal extremity accommodating a specific number of stent segments, e.g. five to ten, and a more tapered proximal extremity on which one or more stent segments may be positioned. [0011] In a further aspect, the expandable member has a proximal end portion fixed to the catheter shaft at a first location and a distal end portion fixed to the catheter shaft at a second location. The proximal end portion has a reverse taper between the first location and the proximal extremity, and the distal end portion has a distal taper between the distal extremity and the second location. In a preferred embodiment, the expandable member is tapered between the proximal end portion and the distal end portion at a slope substantially less than the slope of the distal taper. Preferably, the outer surface is tapered at a slope of about 0.5% to 5%. [0012] In another aspect of the invention, the stent deployment system includes a pusher for slidably advancing the stent segments distally relative to the expandable member. In a preferred embodiment, the pusher comprises a tubular member slidably disposed over the catheter shaft and having a distal end for engaging a stent segment. The pusher can be pushed distally relative to the expandable member to advance the stent segments thereon, or the expandable member may be pulled proximally relative to the stent segments while maintaining a distally directed force on the pusher so that the expandable member is positioned within the stent segments to be deployed. [0013] In a preferred aspect of the invention, the expandable member is adapted to expand a first plurality of stent segments simultaneously while a second plurality of stent segments remains unexpanded. To accomplish this, the stent deployment system preferably includes a sheath slidably disposed over at least a proximal portion of the expandable member on which the second plurality of stent segments is disposed. The sheath is configured to restrain expansion of the proximal portion of the expandable member and the second plurality of stent segments when the distal portion of the expandable member is expanded. The sheath will have sufficient radial strength to resist expansion by the balloon as it is inflated. Preferably, the sheath has a metal braid or other reinforcement embedded in its wall. [0014] In a further aspect, the invention provides a method of deploying stent segments in a blood vessel having a luminal taper. In a preferred embodiment, the method comprises transluminally introducing a catheter into the blood vessel, the catheter having an expandable member near a distal end thereof, positioning a first plurality of independent stent segments over the expandable member such that a first stent segment is on a proximal extremity of the expandable member and a second stent segment is on a distal extremity of the expandable member, the first and second stent segments being independently movable relative to the expandable member; and expanding the expandable member such that the proximal extremity has a first expanded diameter and the distal extremity has a second expanded diameter smaller than the first expanded diameter, wherein the first stent segment is expanded to a diameter larger than the second stent segment. According to the method of the invention, three, four, or more stent segments may be expanded simultaneously to the same or different diameters. [0015] In still another aspect, the method includes a step of constraining a proximal portion of the expandable member from expansion while a distal portion of the expandable member is expanded, the proximal and distal extremities being in the distal portion. Usually, at least a third stent segment, and preferably a plurality of stent segments, is slidably disposed on the proximal portion. In a preferred embodiment, the expandable member is constrained by a sheath slidably disposed over the proximal portion of the expandable member along with the stent segments positioned thereon. [0016] In a further embodiment, the method includes slidably positioning a second plurality of independent stent segments over the expandable member with the catheter remaining in the blood vessel. Preferably, the second plurality of independent stent segments is slidably positioned over the expandable member by a pusher slidably coupled to the catheter. In a preferred method, the second plurality of independent stent segments is slidably positioned over the expandable member by retracting the expandable member relative to the second plurality of independent stent segments while exerting a distal force on the pusher to maintain the stent segments in position. Either the first plurality of stent segments or the second plurality of stent segments, or both, may be slidably positioned over the expandable member while the catheter remains disposed in the blood vessel. [0017] In a further aspect of the invention, a stent deployment system comprises an elongated catheter shaft having a proximal end and a distal end, an expandable member mounted to the catheter shaft near the distal end, the expandable member having an outer surface; and a stent slidably positionable over the outer surface of the expandable member, wherein the outer surface is configured to allow sliding movement of the stent distally relative to the expandable member and inhibit sliding movement of the stent proximally relative to the expandable member. [0018] In a preferred embodiment, the outer surface of the expandable member comprises a plurality of projections projecting outwardly therefrom. The projections point generally in a distal direction to facilitate movement of the stent distally relative thereto and to inhibit movement of the stent proximally relative thereto. In response to sufficient force the projections are resiliently deflectable so as to point generally in a proximal direction to allow movement of the stent proximally relative thereto. Preferably, the projections project at an angle from the outer surface, the angle being variable in response to tension in the outer surface. The angle of the projections may be varied either by exerting tension on the expandable member, or by partially inflating the expandable member. [0019] In an alternative embodiment, the outer surface comprises a plurality of ribs configured to engage the stent. The ribs are preferably convex on a proximal side thereof to facilitate distal movement of the stent, while having a distal side configured to inhibit proximal movement of the stent. The ribs are deflectable in response to sufficient force to allow movement of the stent proximally relative thereto. [0020] Further aspects of the nature and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Continue reading... Full patent description for Stent deployment systems and methods Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Stent deployment systems and methods patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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