Patent Application
20210015518
This invention is in the field of devices to ablate tissue and nerve fibers for the treatment of hypertension, congestive heart failure, BPH and prostate cancer and other disorders.
Since the 1930s it has been known that injury or ablation of the sympathetic nerves in or near the outer layers of the renal arteries can dramatically reduce high blood pressure. As far back as 1952, alcohol has been used for tissue ablation in animal experiments. Specifically Robert M. Berne in “Hemodynamics and Sodium Excretion of Denervated Kidney in Anesthetized and Unanesthetized Dog” Am J Physiol, October 1952 171:(1) 148-158, describes painting alcohol on the outside of a dog's renal artery to produce denervation.
Because of the similarities of anatomy, for the purposes of this disclosure, the term target vessel will refer here to the renal artery, for hypertension or congestive heart failure (CHF) applications and the urethra for BPH and prostate applications.
Recent technology for renal denervation include energy delivery devices using radiofrequency or ultrasound energy, such as Simplicity™ Medtronic, EnligHTN™ from St. Jude Medical which are RF ablation catheters and One Shot system from Covidien. There are potential risks using the current technologies for RF ablation to create sympathetic nerve denervation from interior the renal artery for the treatment of hypertension or congestive heart failure. The short-term complications and the long-term sequelae of applying RF energy from interior the renal artery to the wall of the artery are not well defined. This type of energy applied within the renal artery, and with transmural renal artery injury, may lead to late restenosis, thrombosis, renal artery spasm, embolization of debris into the renal parenchyma, or other problems interior the renal artery. There may also be uneven or incomplete sympathetic nerve ablation, particularly if there are anatomic anomalies, or atherosclerotic or fibrotic disease interior the renal artery, such that there is non-homogeneous delivery of RF energy This could lead to treatment failures, or the need for additional and dangerous levels of RF energy to ablate the nerves that run along the adventitial plane of the renal artery. Similar issues may also be present with the use of ultrasound.
The Simplicity™ system for RF energy delivery also does not allow for efficient circumferential ablation of the renal sympathetic nerve fibers. If circumferential RF energy were applied in a ring segment from within the renal artery (energy applied at intimal surface to kill nerves in the outer adventitial layer) this could lead to even higher risks of renal artery stenosis from the circumferential and transmural thermal injury to the intima, media and adventitia. Finally, the “burning” of the interior wall of the renal artery using RF ablation can be extremely painful to the patient as the C-fibers, which are the pain nerves, are located within or in close proximity to the medial layer of the artery. The long duration of the RF ablation renal denervation procedure requires sedation and, at times, extremely high doses of morphine or other opiates, and anesthesia close to general anesthesia, to control the severe pain associated with repeated burning of the vessel wall. Thus, there are numerous and substantial limitations of the current approach using RF-based renal sympathetic denervation. Similar limitations apply to ultrasound or other energy delivery techniques.
The Bullfrog® micro infusion catheter described by Seward et al in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,547,803 and 7,666,163, which uses an inflatable elastic balloon to expand a single needle against the wall of a blood vessel, could be used for the injection of a chemical ablative solution such as alcohol but it would require multiple applications as those patents do not describe or anticipate the circumferential delivery of an ablative substance around the entire circumference of the vessel. The greatest number of needles shown by Seward is two and the two needle version of the Bullfrog® would be hard to miniaturize to fit through a small guiding catheter to be used in a renal artery. If only one needle is used, controlled and accurate rotation of any device at the end of a catheter is difficult at best and could be risky if the subsequent injections are not evenly spaced. This device also does not allow for a precise, controlled and adjustable depth of delivery of a neuroablative agent. This device also may have physical constraints regarding the length of the needle that can be used, thus limiting the ability to inject agents to an adequate depth, particularly in diseased renal arteries with thickened intima. Another limitation of the Bullfrog® is that inflation of a balloon within the renal artery can induce transient renal ischemia and possibly late vessel stenosis due to balloon injury of the intima and media of the artery, as well as causing endothelial cell denudation.
Jacobson and Davis in U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,870 describe a catheter for medication injection into the interior wall of a blood vessel. While Jacobson includes the concept of multiple needles expanding outward, each with a hilt to limit penetration of the needle into the wall of the vessel, his design depends on rotation of the tube having the needle at its distal end to allow it to get into an outward curving shape. The hilt design shown of a small disk attached a short distance proximal to the needle distal end has a fixed diameter which will increase the total diameter of the device by at least twice the diameter of the hilt so that if the hilt is large enough in diameter to stop penetration of the needle, it will significantly add to the diameter of the device. Using a hilt that has a greater diameter than the tube, increases the device profile, and also prevents the needle from being completely retracted back inside the tubular shaft from which it emerges, keeping the needles exposed and potentially allowing accidental needlestick injuries to occur. For either the renal denervation or atrial fibrillation application, the length of the needed catheter would make control of such rotation difficult. In addition, the hilts, which limit penetration, are a fixed distance from the distal end of the needles. There is no built in adjustment on penetration depth, which may be important if one wishes to selectively target a specific layer in a vessel or if one needs to penetrate all the way through to the volume past the adventitia in vessels with different wall thicknesses. Jacobson also does not envision use of the injection catheter for denervation. Finally, FIG. 3 of the Jacobson patent shows a sheath over expandable needles without a guide wire and the sheath has an open distal end which makes advancement through the vascular system more difficult. Also, because of the hilts, if the needles were withdrawn completely inside of the sheath they could get stuck inside the sheath and be difficult to push out.
As early as 1980, alcohol has been shown to be effective in providing renal denervation in animal models as published by Kline et al in “Functional re-innervation and development of supersensitivity to NE after renal denervation in rats”, American Physiological Society 1980:0363-6110/80/0000-0000801.25, pp. R353-R358. Kline states that “95% alcohol was applied to the vessels to destroy any remaining nerve fibers. Using this technique for renal denervation, we have found renal norepinephrine concentration to be over 50% depleted (i.e. <10 mg/g tissue) two weeks after the operation.” Again in 1983 in the article “Effect of renal denervation on arterial pressure in rats with aortic nerve transaction” Hypertension, 1983, 5:468-475, Kline again publishes that a 95% alcohol solution applied during surgery is effective in ablating the nerves surrounding the renal artery in rats. Drug delivery catheters such as that by described by Jacobson which are designed to inject fluids at multiple points into the wall of an artery have existed since the 1990s.
McGuckin in U.S. Pat. No. 7,087,040 describes a tumor tissue ablation catheter having three expandable tines for injection of fluid that exit a single needle. The tines expand outward to penetrate the tissue. The McGuckin device has an open distal end that does not provide protection from inadvertent needle sticks from the sharpened tines. In addition, the McGuckin device depends on the shaped tines to be of sufficient strength so that they can expand outward and penetrate the tissue. To achieve such strength, the tines would have to be so large in diameter that severe extravascular bleeding would often occur when the tines would be retracted back following fluid injection for a renal denervation application. There also is no workable penetration limiting mechanism that will reliably set the depth of penetration of the distal opening from the tines with respect to the interior wall of the vessel, nor is there a preset adjustment for such depth. For the application of treating liver tumors, the continually adjustable depth of tine penetration may make sense since multiple injections at several depths might be needed. However, for renal denervation, the ability to accurately adjust the depth or have choice of penetration depth when choosing the device to be used is important in some embodiments so as to not infuse the ablative fluid too shallow and injure the media of the renal artery or too deep and thus miss the nerves that are in the adventitial and peri-adventitial layers of the renal artery.
Chan et al. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,273,469 and 8,152,758 describe a catheter assembly with a plurality of delivery cannulas, each connected to a proximal taper wall of an expandable balloon. Furthermore, there is no workable penetration limiting mechanism in Chan that will reliably set the depth of penetration of the needles with respect to the interior wall of the vessel. The Chan device includes independent injection fittings, with one for each needle, which allows each needle to be accidentally set to different depths. For catheters having a plurality of needles, with each needle having an injection fitting, the independent injection fittings will add complexity to the design and make the catheter body have a larger diameter. Further, in other embodiments, the Chan device does not place the delivery cannula flush against the inside wall of the target vessel.
Chan's delivery cannulas are fixedly attached to the outside of a balloon which only moves them outwardly. In some embodiments, the balloon of Chan has a cloverleaf design which would be difficult to manufacture. The balloon may be required to be made from a non-compliant material, which would limit the diameters usable for a single design. In some embodiments, the Chan device has a cylindrical balloon that would obstruct the blood flow in an artery if used for applications like renal denervation. In addition, many embodiments of the Chan device appear to obstruct a significant portion of the cross sectional area of the vessel lumen, which would obstruct much of, if not all of the blood flow and potentially lead to undesirable ischemia of distal tissue. Obstructing blood flow to the kidneys may be counterproductive for, e.g., renal denervation therapies for the treatment of hypertension, since maintaining adequate blood flow to the kidneys during a procedure, which in many cases are already somewhat compromised, can be important. Maintaining adequate blood flow is often important, as renal denervation may be useful for treating hypertension in chronic renal disease or dialysis patients with one or more damaged kidneys.
Although alcohol has historically been shown to be effective as a therapeutic agent for renal denervation and is indicated by the FDA for use in the ablation of nerves, there is need for an intravascular injection system specifically designed for the peri-vascular circumferential ablation of sympathetic nerve fibers in the outer layers around the renal arteries with adjustable penetration depth to accommodate variability in vessel wall thicknesses and to account for the fact that many renal artery nerves are situated at some distance outside of the intimal surface of the renal artery, or the artery's adventitia.
Fischell et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 9,056,185 discloses the use of an anesthetic first injection followed by an ablative fluid. The catheter designs shown in U.S. Pat. No. 9,056,185 can only penetrate to a single pre-set depth optimized for ablating the sympathetic nerves outside the renal artery. With the pain nerves in the media of the renal artery and the sympathetic nerve fibers being often several millimeters outside of the renal artery, having only one pre-set depth of penetration can limit the effectiveness of the anesthetic injection.
Throughout this specification any of the terms ablative fluid, ablative solution and/or ablative substance will be used interchangeably to include a liquid or a gaseous substance delivered into a volume of tissue in a human body with the intention of damaging, killing or ablating nerves or tissue within that volume of tissue. Also throughout this specification, the term inside wall or interior surface applied to a blood vessel, vessel wall, artery or arterial wall mean the same thing which is the inside surface of the vessel wall inside of which is the vessel lumen. Also the term injection egress is defined as the distal opening in a needle from which a fluid being injected will emerge. With respect to the injection needle, either injection egress or distal opening may be used here interchangeably.
The terminology “deep to” a structure is defined as beyond or outside of the structure so that “deep to the adventitia” refers to a volume of tissue outside of the adventitia of an artery.
Fischell et al. in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 13/216,495, 13/294,439 and 13/342,521 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,016,185) describe several methods of using expandable needles to deliver ablative fluid into or deep to the wall of a target vessel. Each of these applications is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. There are two types of embodiments of Ser. No. 13/216,495, 13/294,439 applications and U.S. Pat. No. 9,016,185, those where the needles alone expand outward without support from any other structure and those with guide tubes that act as guiding elements to support the needles as they are advanced into the wall of a target vessel. The limitation of the needle alone designs are that if small enough needles are used to avoid blood loss following penetration through the vessel wall, then the needles may be too flimsy to reliably and uniformly expand to their desired position. The use of a cord or wire to connect the needles together in one embodiment helps some in the area. The use of guide tubes as described in the Fischell application Ser. Nos. 13/294,439 and 13/342,521 (U.S. Pat. No. 9,016,185) greatly improves this support, but the unsupported guide tubes themselves depend on their own shape to ensure that they expand uniformly and properly center the distal portion of the catheter. Without predictable catheter centering and guide tube expansion it may be challenging to achieve accurate and reproducible needle “backup support” and penetration to a targeted depth.
Another limitation of the non-supported guide tubes is the lack of radial support or “backup” as the injection needles are advanced through the guide tubes. This can result in the guide tubes being pushed away from the interior surface of the vessel wall as the needles are advanced. If the guide tubes are stiff enough to provide backup then the distal section of the catheter becomes more rigid and this may limit catheter deliverability, and may allow catheter or guide tube trauma to the wall of the vessel. If the guide tubes are fairly flexible then they can be pushed away from the wall during needle advancement, and/or be displaced radially such that the injection sites are not distributed symmetrically around the central axis of the target vessel. While Fischell et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 9,056,185 disclose the injection at a single pre-set depth beyond the interior wall of an anesthetic agent such as lidocaine before the injection of an ablative fluid, some embodiments of the present disclosure include significant improvements on this, including but not limited to: (1) Use of an adjustable depth of penetration that would allow a first injection of an anesthetic agent into or just beyond the media of the renal artery followed by injection of an ablative fluid at a depth about 2 mm to about 8 mm beyond the external elastic lamina that marks the outside of the media of the renal artery; (2) use of a plurality of catheters, the first catheter with a pre-set depth for injecting the anesthetic agent and the second catheter with a pre-set depth set for injecting the ablative fluid could be used for this purpose; and (3) an advantageous method to reduce or eliminate any pain associated with the denervation procedure is to use a slow single injection of an ablative fluid, which would be less complex and less costly. In this approach, described herein, one could inject a single agent that acts locally as an anesthetic, and also acts as a neurolytic agent. This would have advantages over the injection of a separate local anesthetic, followed by the injection of a separate neurolytic agent. Not to be limited by theory, one reason that slow injection eliminates any potential pain associated with the injection of the ablative fluid is that a slow injection at a depth outside of the media of the renal artery can give the fluid time to spread out evenly from the injection points both radially and circumferentially. A fast injection should be avoided as it could force the ablative fluid to reflect back along the sides of the needle through the opening made by the needle exposing the media and pain nerves to the ablative fluid.
The present application discloses in some embodiments a peri-vascular Tissue Ablation Catheter (PTAC), that is capable of delivering an ablative fluid to produce circumferential damage in the tissue that is in the outer layer or beyond the outer layer of a vessel of a human body. The tissue and nerve ablation using this technique can be accomplished in a relatively short time as compared with RF ablation catheters, and also has the advantage of using only a disposable catheter, with no additional, externally located, capital equipment. It will also allow the use of short acting systemic sedating agents like midazolam, lorazepam, propofol, and the like and lower doses of narcotics to reduce or eliminate patient discomfort and pain during the procedure.
The primary focus of use of PTAC is in the treatment of hypertension and congestive heart failure by renal denervation and the treatment of BPH and prostate cancer by tissue ablation of the prostate from a catheter in the urethra, although other indications are also possible depending on the desired clinical result.
Unlike the Bullfrog or current RF ablation devices that work with one or, at most two points of ablation, the presently disclosed device is designed to provide peri-vascular fluid injection allowing a more uniform circumferential injury to the nerves or other “target” tissue, while minimizing injury to the interior layers of the vessel wall. The term “circumferential delivery” is defined here as at least three points of simultaneous injection of a suitable ablative solution within a vessel wall, or circumferential filling of the space outside of the adventitial layer (outer wall) of a blood vessel. Unlike the Jacobson device of U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,870, which does describe circumferential delivery, the disclosed device does not depend upon rotation of a tube to create outward movement nor does it have a fixed diameter hilt to limit penetration. In addition, while the Jacobson patent shows a version of his device that pulls back within a sheath like tube, the tube has an open end and the claims of the Jacobson patent require an increase in diameter to accommodate the manifold that allows the fluid flowing in one lumen from the proximal end of the catheter to egress through multiple needles. The preferred embodiment of the present application uses a manifold that fits within the lumen of the tube thus greatly decreasing the diameter of the catheter which enhances delivery of the catheter to the desired site within the human body.
Specifically, there is a definite need for such a catheter system that is capable of highly efficient, and reproducible peri-vascular ablation of the sympathetic nerves surrounding the renal artery, or tissue around a target vessel, and thus improve the control and treatment of hypertension, etc. The primary improvement of the present disclosure is the addition of support structures that improve the uniformity and symmetry of expansion of the guide tubes of the Fischell application Ser. Nos. 13/294,439 and 13/342,521 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,016,185) applications. The support structures of the present application can also, in some embodiments, support the expanded guide tubes in the radial (outward) direction to provide better backup as the needles are advanced through the guide tubes and into the wall of the target vessel.
This type of system may also have major advantages over other current technologies by allowing highly efficient, and reproducible peri-vascular circumferential ablation of the muscle fibers and conductive tissue in the wall of the pulmonary veins near or at their ostium into the left atrium of the heart. Such ablation could interrupt atrial fibrillation (AF), atrial flutter, supraventricular tachycardia, and other cardiac arrhythmias. The concepts of the present application could also be used to ablate ventricular tissue for ventricular tachycardia ablation, or prostatic tissue external to the prostatic urethra to treat benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) or prostate cancer. Other potential applications of this approach may also become evident from the various teachings of this patent.
Like the earlier Fischell inventions for the treatment of hypertension, the present application discloses a small diameter catheter, which includes multiple expandable injector tubes having sharpened injection needles at or near their distal ends that are advanced through guide tubes designed to support and guide the needles into and through the intimal and medial layers of the target vessel.
There can also be significant advantages of this embodiment over the Fischell Ser. No. 13/294,439 application as far as the uniformity and predictability of device centering and the enhanced control of the rate of advancement of the guide tubes to their position engaging the interior wall of the target vessel.
The embodiments shown here have significant differences and advantages over the Chan designs of U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,273,469 and 8,152,758 and other catheters known in the art. Specifically the differences and advantages may include, for example:
The distal portion of the guiding catheter used to access the target vessel (such as the renal artery) is typically not aligned with the longitudinal axis of that vessel. Since that is the case, the presently disclosed device with a manually expanded embodiment using three guide tubes will be advantageous in several different ways. When the three guide tubes are advanced outward, one will touch the interior wall of the target vessel first and as the guide tubes are further advanced outward, this first touching guide tube will push the body of the PTAC away from the wall toward the center of the vessel until the second guide tube touches the interior wall of the target vessel. Then both touching guide tubes will push the PTAC further toward the center of the vessel until the third guide tube touches the interior wall of the vessel. Because the guide tubes here are not flimsy structures, and have each the same diameter of expansion from the longitudinal axis of the PTAC, this will reproducibly place the distal portion of the PTAC close to the true center of the vessel lumen. Fluoroscopic imaging of the radiopaque markers on the distal portion of the guide tubes provides visual confirmation of the correct centering of the catheter and the positioning of the guide tubes abutting the intimal surface. This centering can also be confirmed by using contrast injected from the guiding catheter in conjunction with x-ray imaging (e.g., fluoroscopy), after guide tube deployment.
Another key advantage of this system is the stabilization and “backup” support of the guide tubes as the injector tubes with distal injection needles are deployed/advanced through the target vessel wall. The guide tubes, which are now engaged against the intimal surface (interior wall) of the target vessel, are supported by the tubular shafts in the body of the PTAC. Because of this central catheter “backup,” the guide tubes should remain in place as the injection needles penetrate the interior wall of the target vessel and advance distally to their preset depth of penetration. The ablative fluid can then be delivered, the needles retracted back into the guide tubes and the guide tubes and needles retracted back into the tubular shafts within the distal portion of the PTAC. In this way the operator can also be protected at all times from bare/exposed needles that could result in needlestick injuries to healthcare personnel.
A second embodiment that improves upon the teachings of the Fischell application Ser. No. 13/294,439 utilizing a self-expanding design, utilizes guide tubes attached to an intraluminal centering mechanism (ICM). One embodiment of the ICM is an expandable wire basket like structure that opens up against the interior wall of the target vessel and improves the centering, uniform and symmetric expansion, and radial support (backup) for the guide tubes to prevent the guide tubes from pulling away from the interior wall of the target vessel as the injection needles are advanced though that wall. The ICM is particularly of value if the guide tubes with ICM are self-expanding. The ICM can also provide additional stability and backup for manually expandable guide tubes such as described in the first embodiment above. The ICM may include specific radiopaque markers to provide visualization during fluoroscopy of the state of expansion of the ICM. The ICM may also create a minimal degree of offset from the tip of the guide tubes to the vessel interior wall, in order to decrease trauma to the intimal and medial layers of the vessel wall by the guide tube tips.
In either embodiment of the presently disclosed PTAC, ablative fluid can be injected through the distal ends of the injection needles that have a distal opening (injection egress) at or near their distal ends. There is a penetration limiting mechanism as part of the PTAC so that the needles will only penetrate into or beyond the interior wall of the target vessel to a preset distance. The preferred embodiment of the penetration limiting mechanism is integrated into the proximal portion of the PTAC and may include penetration depth adjustment means. The adjustment could include markings that allow for precise depth adjustments.
Adjustment of the penetration depth by mechanisms in the proximal end of the PTAC may be either physician controlled or they could be preset during device production. In the first case, use of intravascular ultrasound or other imaging techniques could be used to identify the thickness of the renal artery at the desired site for PVRD. The clinician would then adjust the depth accordingly. It is also envisioned that the PTAC could be preset in the factory using the depth adjustment which would not be accessible to the clinician and if multiple depths are needed, different product codes would be provided that allow for different depths of penetration. For example, three depths might be available such as at least 2 mm, at least 3 mm and at least 4 mm. Another advantage of factory adjustable depth is to simplify calibration and quality production as the variation for each produced PTAC may require a final in factory adjustment of needle depth so that precise depth of penetration is provided. It is also an advantage for regulatory filings that a preset depth or depths be used during trials and for approval to limit potential error in setting the wrong depth. Finally, it is envisioned that both an internal adjustment for factory production and calibration and an externally available adjustment with depth markings could be integrated into the PTAC.
The adjustment means can be used with the presently disclosed PTAC in one of the following ways:
Ideally, the injection needles should be sufficiently small so that there will be virtually no blood loss following the withdrawal of the injector tubes from the vessel wall. A major advantage of the embodiments disclosed in the present application over the embodiments taught in the Fischell Ser. No. 13/216,495 application and the Jacobson U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,870 patent is that with such small (<25 gauge) needles, self-expanding structures can be quite flimsy and may not provide a reliable means to ensure accurate penetration of the vessel wall if not supported by structures like the presently disclosed guide tubes. The presently disclosed guide tubes with attached ICM offer additional advantages over the unsupported guide tubes of prior Fischell designs as described in the Ser. No. 13/294,439 application and U.S. Pat. No. 9,016,185. Another advantage being the reliable centering of the guide tubes in the vessel and reduced trauma where the expanded mechanism touches the interior of the vessel wall.
There are several different embodiments of the presently disclosed ICM supported guide tubes. These include:
The injector tubes with distal injection needles of the presently disclosed embodiments would typically have a preset curved shape with a radius of curvature similar to, or with greater curvature than that of the guide tubes. Thus as the injector tubes are advanced through the guide tubes they will follow the guide tube curve and not cause the guide tubes to change position (e.g., straighten) with respect to the interior wall of the target vessel. The radius of curvature of the distal portion of the guide tubes and the distal portion of the injector tubes should be within plus or minus 25% of each other and ideally within plus or minus 10%. If one were to use very small and very flexible injector tubes/needles, one could make the needles curve backwards more than, for example, about 25 degrees relative to the guide tube curvature.
The embodiments of the present application will function in vessels of different diameters as the expanded shape of the guide tubes will be set so that, without the constraint of the interior wall of the vessel, they would achieve an expanded diameter slightly larger than the biggest vessel diameter envisioned for device use. It is also a feature of the embodiments of the present application that the injector tubes curve backward in the proximal direction as they extend from the distal end of the guide tubes and penetrate through the vessel wall.
Because precise depth penetration is preferred, the tubing used for any of the PTAC proximal or distal sections should have limited stretchability so they do not elongate during deployment through a guiding catheter into the renal artery. For example, stainless steel, L605 or nitinol hypotubes could be the best material for the proximal tubular sections of the PTAC. Alternately, metal reinforced tubing or high durometer plastic with reduced elongation tendencies could be used. Such tubing would also be suitable for the distal section of the PTAC where more flexibility is needed to go around the nearly right angle bend in the guiding catheter as it enters the renal artery from the aorta.
The injector tubes with distal needles are in fluid communication with an injection lumen in the catheter body, which is in fluid communication with an injection port at the proximal end of the PTAC. Such an injection port would typically include a standard connector such as a Luer connector used to connect to a source of ablative fluid. Also envisioned and described herein is the use of a customized (proximal) fitting (different from a Luer fitting) for the injection port that can improve safety by disallowing the accidental injection of fluid from a standard syringe, and also to minimize dead space within the catheter when injecting ablative agents.
This injection system also anticipates the use of very small gauge needles (smaller than 25 gauge) to penetrate the arterial wall, such that the needle penetration could be safe, even if targeted to a volume of tissue that is or beyond the adventitial layer of the aorta, a pulmonary vein or renal artery, or prostatic urethra. It is also anticipated that the distal needle could be a cutting needle or a coring needle and with a cutting needle the injection egress/distal opening ports could be small injection holes (pores) cut into the sides of the injector tubes or distal needle, proximal to the cutting needle tip. The use of the cutting design may be preferred in some cases as to prevent tissue clogging the distal ends of the needles (coring needles) when advanced through the blood vessel wall. There should be at least 2 injector tubes but 3 to 8 tubes may be more appropriate, depending on the diameter of the vessel to be treated and the ability of the injected ablative fluid to spread within the peri-vascular space. For example, in a 5 mm diameter renal artery, only 3 or 4 needles may be needed while in an 8 mm diameter renal artery, one might need 4 to 6 needles to ensure one injection/infusion delivers the agent to 360 degrees around the vessel in most cases.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure would use an alcohol (e.g., ethanol) as the ablative fluid because this fluid is agrophobic, lipophilic, and spreads quickly in the peri-vascular space. Therefore, only 3 needles are needed to create circumferential delivery of this ablative agent, which allows one to use a smaller diameter device and a relatively small volume of the ablative agent. It is also envisioned that use of ethanol or another alcohol plus another neurotoxic agent could also enhance the spread of the ablative agent in the peri-vascular space.
A self-expanding embodiment of the presently disclosed PTAC would typically include a tubular, thin-walled sheath that constrains the guide tubes and ICM prior to deployment, during transition from treating one renal artery to the other, and during removal from the body. The sheath also allows the distal end of the PTAC to be easily inserted into the proximal end of a guiding catheter or introducer sheath. The sheath also serves to protect the operator(s) from possible needle sticks and exposure to blood borne pathogens at the end of the procedure when the PTAC is removed from the patient's body. The sheath would typically include a radiopaque marker near its distal end to allow the operator to know its position under fluoroscopy.
The entire PTAC is designed to include a fixed distal guide wire or be advanced over a guide wire in either an over-the-wire configuration where the guide wire lumen runs the entire length of the PTAC or a rapid exchange configuration where the guide wire exits the catheter body at least 10 cm proximal to the distal end of the PTAC and runs outside of the catheter shaft proximally. It is also envisioned that one could use a soft and tapered distal tip, even without a distal guidewire, for some applications.
The fixed wire version, or the version with the soft tapered distal tip without a guidewire are the preferred embodiments, as they would have the smallest distal diameter. Just proximal to the fixed wire is a tapered distal portion of the PTAC which can be called an obturator. The obturator serves several purposes in the design of the PTAC.
Fluoroscopic visualization of the correct deployment of the guide tubes and injection needles are highly desirable. There are several ways that this goal could be accomplished. It is envisioned that the injection needles, guiding tubes and injection tubes could be formed from a radiopaque material such as tantalum or tungsten or coated, or marked with a radiopaque material such as gold or platinum so as to make them clearly visible using fluoroscopy. One embodiment of a preferred method however is to place radiopaque marker bands near the distal ends of each guide tube and include a radiopaque wire or ribbon within the lumen of each injector tube. In addition to providing better visibility, the radiopaque wire in the lumen of each injector tube reduces the internal volume or dead space within the injector tube thereby reducing the amount of fluid needed to flush the internal volume of the PTAC.
It is also envisioned that one or more of the injector needles could be electrically connected to the proximal end of the PTAC so as to also act as a diagnostic electrode(s) for evaluation of the electrical activity in the area of the vessel wall, to assess renal nerve activity and/or viability.
It is also envisioned that one could attach two or more of the expandable legs to an electrical or RF source to deliver electric current or RF energy to perform tissue and/or nerve ablation by delivering RF in the adventitial space, which may provide more efficient and safer RF ablation than RF applied from the intimal surface and “burning” through the intimal and medial layers of the blood vessel wall.
It is also envisioned that this device could utilize one, or more than one neuroablative substances to be injected simultaneously, or in a sequence of injections, in order to optimize permanent sympathetic nerve disruption in a segment of the renal artery (neurotmesis). The anticipated neurotoxic agents that could be utilized includes but is not limited to ethanol, phenol, glycerol, local anesthetics in relatively high concentration (e.g., lidocaine, or other agents such as bupivacaine, tetracaine, benzocaine, etc.), anti-arrhythmic drugs that have neurotoxicity, botulinum toxin, digoxin or other cardiac glycosides, guanethidine, heated fluids including heated saline, hypertonic saline, hypotonic fluids, potassium chloride, or heated neuroablative substances such as those listed above.
It is also envisioned that the ablative substance can be hypertonic fluids such as hypertonic saline (extra salt) or hypotonic fluids such as distilled water. These may cause permanent damage to the nerves and could be equally as good as alcohol or specific neurotoxins. These can also be injected hot or cold or at room temperature. The use of distilled water, hypotonic saline or hypertonic saline with an injection volume of less than 1 ml eliminates one step in the use of the PTAC because small volumes of these fluids should not be harmful to the kidney and so the need to completely flush the ablative fluid from the PTAC with normal saline to prevent any of the ablative fluid getting into the renal artery during catheter withdrawal is no longer needed. This means there would be only one fluid injection step per artery instead of two if a more toxic ablative fluid is used.
It is also envisioned that the PTAC catheter could be connected to a heated fluid or steam source to deliver high temperature fluids to ablate or injure the target tissue or nerves. The heated fluid could be normal saline, hypertonic fluid, hypotonic fluid alcohol, phenol, lidocaine, or some other combination of fluids. Injection of hot or vaporized normal saline, hypertonic saline, hypotonic saline, ethanol, distilled water or other fluids via the needles could also be performed in order to achieve thermal ablation of target tissue or nerves at and around the needle injection sites.
The present disclosure also envisions use of anesthetic agents such as lidocaine which if injected first or in or together with an ablative solution can reduce or eliminate any pain associated with the denervation procedure. The sympathetic nerves that are targeted for ablation are typically quite deep, and beyond the outside of the media of the artery, while the pain fibers/nerves are typically within or close to the media. Thus, in some embodiments the present invention (chemical denervation system) will be substantially less painful than energy-based ablation from inside of the renal artery. One aspect of the method of use of the PTAC that can in most cases reduce or eliminate any pain to the patient, is to inject the ablative fluid, such as ethanol, slowly over a time period of about or more than about 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 150, 180, 210, 240, 270, 300, or more seconds, or a range incorporating any two of the aforementioned time values, such as between about 45 seconds and about 105 seconds, or between about 60 seconds and about 90 seconds in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the ablative fluid can be injected continuously, or intermittently. Not to be limited by theory, but when an alcohol such as ethanol, or possibly other neurolytic agents, are infused slowly in this manner, it can act as a local anesthetic to disrupt pain fibers/nerves even preceding the complete spread that would be needed for renal sympathetic nerve ablation. In some embodiments, the relatively slow rate of injection can be generally about or slower than about 4.0 ml/minute, 3.5 ml/minute, 3.0 ml/minute, 2.5 ml/minute, 2.0 ml/minute, 1.5 ml/minute, 1.0 ml/minute, 0.9 ml/minute, 0.8 ml/minute, 0.7 ml/minute, 0.6 ml/minute, 0.5 ml/minute, 0.4 ml/minute, 0.3 ml/minute, or even less.
It is also envisioned that one could utilize imaging techniques such as multislice CT scan, MM, intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) or optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging to get an exact measurement of the thickness and anatomy of the target vessel wall (e.g., the renal artery) such that one could know and set the exact and correct penetration depth for the injection of the ablative agent prior to the advancement of the injector needles or injector tubes. The use of IVUS prior to use of the PTAC may be particularly useful in order to target the exact depth intended for injection. This exact depth can then be targeted using the adjustable depth of penetration feature or by selection of an appropriate PTAC having a preset depth for the delivery of the ablative fluid. In production, different product codes would be made available with package labeling according to the penetration depth.
For use in renal sympathetic nerve ablation, the present preferred manually expandable (“push”) guide tube embodiment of the PTAC would be used with the following steps (although not every step is essential and steps may be simplified or modified as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art):
A simplified version of the prior procedure avoids the use of saline flushes for the catheter injection lumen/dead space as follows:
This simplified procedure should be safe because the amount of ablative fluid that can leak out of the retracted injection needles is significantly less than the dead space in the PTAC. Specifically, while as much as 0.5 ml of many ablative fluids such as ethanol can be safely injected into the renal artery without causing kidney damage, even if the entire internal volume were to leak out into the renal artery, because the dead space is less than 0.3 ml, it would not harm the kidney. In the real world, less than 10% of the internal volume (e.g., less than 0.03 ml) can ever leak out of the closed PTAC so the simplified procedure above should be safe.
For use in renal sympathetic nerve ablation, the embodiment of the presently disclosed PTAC with ICM would be used with the following steps (although not every step is essential and steps may be simplified or modified as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art):
In both embodiments of the present application, as described in the methods above, the means to limit needle penetration of the vessel wall is included in the proximal portion of the PTAC. A handle or handles are envisioned that would be used by the operator to cause first the expansion of the guide tubes and second the advancement of the injection needles. The reverse motion of these mechanisms would then retract the needles back into the guide tubes and then retract the guide tubes back into the catheter body or under a sheath. Fischell et al in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 13/643,070, 13/643,066 and 13/643,065 describes such control mechanisms for advancing and retracting distal structures such as sheaths, guide tubes and injector tubes with distal injection needles. Interlocks and locking mechanisms to prevent accidental movement out of sequence of these mechanisms are also described.
Similarly, Fischell et al describes the proximal section with ports for flushing and ablative fluid injection. The embodiments disclosed in the present application would have similar structures and controls in the proximal section. The mid-section of the catheter would typically be three concentric tubes. In the manually expandable embodiment with tubular shafts, there is an outer tube that forms the main body of the catheter. A middle tube controls the advancement and retraction of the guide tubes and an inner tube controls the advancement and retraction of the injector tubes with distal injection needles. The lumen of the inner tube is also the lumen that carries the ablative fluid injected in the injection port in the proximal section of the PTAC to the lumens of the injector tubes and injection needles and finally out though the distal opening at or near the distal ends of the injection needles.
Another advantageous feature of the presently disclosed PTAC is a design that reduces the internal volume of the PTAC (the “dead space”) to minimize the amount of saline needed to flush the ablative fluid out of the catheter into the desired volume of tissue. It is anticipated that less than 0.5 ml of an ablative fluid such as ethanol will be needed to perform PVRD. The dead space should be less than 0.5 ml and ideally less than 0.2 ml. With certain design features it is conceived that the dead space can be reduced to less than 0.1 ml. Such features include using a small diameter <0.5 mm ID hypotube for the inner tube used for fluid injection for the PTAC, including a wire placed into the full length of the hypotube/inner tube to reduce the volume of the hypotube and thus reduce the PTAC dead space and/or designing the proximal injection port and or injection manifold at the proximal end of the PTAC to have low volume by having small <0.5 mm inner diameter and a short, <2 cm length.
It is a feature of some embodiments of this invention that the guide tubes are needle guiding elements for the advance-able, ultra-thin injection needles. Specifically, prior art such as Jacobson that describes curved needles that are advanced outward from a central catheter to penetrate the interior wall of a target vessel, have bare needles that are advanced on their own from the distal end or the side of a catheter. Without additional guiding (support) during advancement, needles that are thin enough to not cause blood loss following withdrawal from the wall of the artery are generally too flimsy to reliably penetrate as desired into the vessel wall. Thus it is envisioned that a key aspect of the embodiments disclosed in the present application is the inclusion of needle guiding elements such as guide tubes that allow the ultra-thin injection needles to be reliably advanced into the wall of a target vessel to the desired depth. Such guiding elements need not be a tube or have a round cross-section, they could be a half or partial tube, they can be a structure with a slot that provides a guide for the advance-able needles, and a guiding structure could be any expandable structure such as a spring that expands outward and provides radial support and a guide for the needles. The terms “expand” and “expands” are intended to refer to motion of a structure from a first position relatively closer to a longitudinal axis of the catheter to at least a second position that is relatively farther away from the longitudinal axis, whether the motion is by expansion, deflection, pivoting, or other mechanism. It is desirable that the needle guiding elements expand outward from the central catheter.
What is also unique about some of the embodiments disclosed in the present application is the use of additional structures to provide radial and lateral support for the needle guiding elements. This is important, in some cases, because one needs a uniform penetration and angular spread of the multiple needles. In addition, as the needles are advanced, and guided by a “guiding element,” (e.g., the guide tube) the guiding element can, if unsupported, back away from the desired position against the interior wall of the vessel. For this reason, the present disclosure teaches the design of structures that provide radial (“backup”) support for the needle guiding elements that provide resistance to the guiding elements backing away from the interior surface as the needles are advanced into the wall of the vessel.
Another embodiment of the present disclosure simplifies the construction by combining the guide tube and injector tube into a single injector tube. This also reduces the steps of operation. Specifically, the injector needle is permanently attached inside the injector tube which is advanced and retracted through the tubular shaft. The distal end of the injector tube is of larger diameter than the injector needle and provides the “stop” that limits the penetration of the injector needle into the wall of the target vessel.
Yet another embodiment of the present disclosure uses an inflatable balloon to expand the guide tubes through which the injector tubes with distal needles are advanced into the wall of the target vessel. The balloon may be compliant, semi-compliant or non-compliant. However, an elastic compliant balloon is preferred as it would allow the diameter of the outer edges of the expanded guide tubes to be easily set by using different inflation pressures for the balloon. Attaching the guide tubes to the outside of the balloon simplifies construction as compared with attempting to place guide tubes within the balloon and also allows the distal end of the guide tubes to be the points of engagement with the interior wall of the target vessel so that the external surface of the balloon does not touch the wall. Having the balloon touch the wall can remove the endothelial cells and produce neointimal hyperplasia which is undesirable. The balloon expandable embodiment may have the guide tubes and injector tubes combined where the balloon expansion causes the needles to expand outward to penetrate the wall. The balloon expandable embodiments may also use an optional sheath to enclose the expandable distal portion to facilitate delivery and reduce the chance of needlestick injuries during handling, insertion and removal of the catheter. Having the guide tubes or injector tubes attached to the outside of an expandable elastic balloon will also provide radial and lateral stability for the thin needles to ensure both uniform expansion and backup as the needles are advanced through the wall of the target vessel.
Another feature of the embodiments of the present application is to have the injection port for injecting the ablative fluid would be a non-standard fitting with a small diameter lumen. In addition, the present application envisions matching syringes that would have the mate for the non-standard fitting of the injection port. Such a syringe could contain the appropriate volume for injection of fluids into the wall of the target vessel including ablative fluids or a saline solution used to flush the injector tubes prior to insertion of the PTAC into the vessel to be treated.
Another feature of the PTAC disclosed in the present application is that the flow though the multiple needles should be matched to provide a uniform circumferential delivery of the ablative fluid from each of the needle tips.
Another feature of the PTAC disclosed in the present application gives the user the ability to lock down the longitudinal motion of the catheter once the distal portion is at the desired site in the renal artery. There are several ways of doing this that can be accomplished using a number of specific features of the PTAC as described herein. These design features include:
Thus a feature of the presently disclosed PTAC is to have a percutaneously delivered catheter with expandable supported needle guiding elements through which injection needles are advanced for injection of an ablative fluid into or beyond the outer layers of the renal artery whose design will reduce or prevent the risk of injury to the intimal and media layers of the renal artery.
Another aspect of the present application is to have a PTAC design with manually expandable guide tubes/needle guiding elements which are advanced outward from the body of the PTAC, the PTAC having support structures that support the guide tubes/needle guiding elements radially against the interior wall of the target vessel.
Another aspect of the present disclosure is to have a PTAC design with manually expandable guide tubes/needle guiding elements which are advanced outwardly from tubular shafts with distal openings in the distal portion of the body of the PTAC, the tubular shafts and openings providing lateral support for the guide tubes/needle guiding elements to ensure they expand uniformly and symmetrically in a circumferential/lateral distribution. For example, if three guide tubes/needle guiding elements are used, the lateral support will help to ensure that a ˜120 degree angle is maintained between adjacent guide tubes/needle guiding elements, as the guide tubes/needle guiding elements expand outward.
Another aspect of an embodiment of the PTAC disclosed in the present application is to have an intraluminal centering mechanism (ICM) attached to the guide tubes/needle guiding elements that provides additional radial support or backup to prevent the guide tubes/needle guiding elements from being pushed away from the interior wall of the target vessel as the injector tubes with distal injection needles are advanced through the guide tubes/needle guiding elements into the peri-vascular space.
Another aspect of the PTAC of the present disclosure is to have an intraluminal centering mechanism (ICM) attached to the guide tubes/needle guiding elements that provides additional lateral support to enhance the uniformity of guide tube expansion.
Still another aspect of the PTAC of the present application is to have an intraluminal centering mechanism that reduces the potential trauma to the interior wall of the target vessel from the guide tubes that guide the penetration of the injector needles for tissue ablation.
Still another aspect of the present disclosure is to have a two step injection method for renal denervation where the catheter is filled with normal saline before insertion into the body; then after needle deployment a first injection of ablative fluid (for example ethanol) is done, followed by a second step to flush all the ablative fluid out of the catheter dead space using normal saline or a similar fluid that is non-toxic to the kidneys. The PTAC is then closed and the same two injection steps are used for the other renal artery.
Still another aspect of the present application is to have a one step injection method for renal denervation of each artery, where the catheter is filled with the ablative fluid before insertion into the body; then after needle deployment a single injection of ablative fluid (for example ethanol) is done. The PTAC is then closed and the same single injection step is used for the other renal artery.
Still another aspect of the present disclosure is to have at least three guide tubes/needle guiding elements in the PTAC each having a radiopaque marker. The guide tubes/needle guiding elements being manually expandable outward from within a set of tubular shafts which provide additional support and backup to stabilize each guide tube/needle guiding element against the interior wall of the target vessel. Expansion of the guide tubes/needle guiding elements is accomplished by manipulation of a mechanism in the proximal portion of the PTAC.
Still another aspect of the invention is to have curved expandable injector tubes with injection needles that are able to be coaxially advanced through guide tubes. A distal portion of the injector tubes having a radius of curvature that is similar to that of the guide tubes.
Yet another aspect of an embodiment of the present application is to combine the guide tube and injector tube into an injector tube with thickened proximal portion that acts as the penetration limiter and can be manufactured to set a specific depth of injection.
Yet another aspect of the PTAC of the present disclosure is to use an expandable balloon to provide radial expansion and support for the guide tubes/needle guiding elements and/or injector tubes with distal injection needles.
Yet another aspect of the PTAC of the present application is to teach the use of the slow infusion of one, two, or more neurolytic agents in order to have a local anesthetic effect, in order to reduce or eliminate the pain associated with renal nerve denervation. While several methods to reduce or eliminate pain associated with a renal denervation procedure are disclosed, the techniques of slow injection of a single ablative fluid or injection or an anesthetic agent and an ablative fluid at two different depths from a fluid delivery catheter can be applicable to any injection into or deep to the wall of any vessel of the human body. This includes, for example, tissue ablation in the left ventricular wall nerves outside of a pulmonary vein to treat atrial fibrillation or the urethra for tissue ablation associated with the treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy or prostate cancer.
Yet another aspect of the PTAC of the present application is to have the flow resistance of each of the multiplicity of needles be approximately the same.
Yet another aspect of the PTAC of the present disclosure is to include one or more of the following radiopaque markers to assist in positioning, opening, closing and using the PTAC. These include the following:
Throughout this specification the terms injector tube with distal injection needle is used to specify a tube with a sharpened distal end that penetrates into tissue and is used to inject a fluid into that tissue. Such a structure could also be called a hypodermic needle, an injection needle or simply a needle. In addition, the terms element and structure may be used interchangeably within the scope of this application. The term Luer fitting may be used throughout this application to mean a tapered Luer fitting without a screw cap or a Luer Lock fitting that has a screw cap.
The present disclosure, in some aspects, provides a catheter for fluid delivery through at least two injection needles into tissue outside of the interior wall of a target vessel of a human body. In some embodiments, the catheter is provided having a central axis extending in a longitudinal direction and a fluid injection lumen. The catheter can include at least two guide tubes configured to advance distally and expand outwardly toward the interior wall of the target vessel. The catheter can include a mechanical support structure having a deflection surface. The deflection surface deflects the at least two guide tubes toward the interior wall of the target vessel. The catheter can include at least two injector tubes having distal injection needles. Each distal injection needle can have an injection lumen in fluid communication with the fluid injection lumen of the catheter body. The at least two injector tubes are configured to advance distally and expand outwardly, guided by the at least two guide tubes to penetrate the interior wall of the target vessel. The distal injection needles can have an opening for fluid delivery.
The present disclosure, in some aspects, provides a catheter for fluid delivery through at least two injection needles into tissue outside of the interior wall of a target vessel of a human body. In some embodiment, the catheter is provided having a central axis extending in a longitudinal direction and also comprising a fluid injection lumen. The catheter can include a sheath having a distal closed position and a proximal open position. The catheter can include at least two self-expanding guide tubes adapted to expand outwardly toward the interior wall of the target vessel when the sheath is moved from its distal closed position to its proximal open position. The catheter can have a handle located near the proximal end of the catheter. The handle can be configured to move the sheath in the longitudinal direction with respect to the self-expanding guide tubes. The catheter can include at least two injector tubes with distal injection needles each having an injection lumen in fluid communication with the fluid injection lumen of the catheter body. The at least two injector tubes with distal injection needles are configured to be advanced outwardly, guided by the at least two guide tubes to penetrate the interior wall of the target vessel. The at least two injection needles can have a distal opening for fluid delivery into the tissue outside of the interior wall of the target vessel. The catheter can include a mechanical support structure. The mechanical support structure can provide support for the at least two self-expanding guide tubes in a direction selected from the group consisting of a) radial, in which the mechanical support structure supports each guide tube in a radial direction, and b) lateral, in which the mechanical support structure supports each guide tube in a lateral direction. The distal end of the injection needles can be withdrawn into the at least two self-expanding guide tubes and the at least two self-expanding guide tubes can be withdrawn into the catheter body in the distal closed position. The distal closed position can prevent needlestick injuries form the sharpened distal end of the injection needles.
The present disclosure, in some aspects, provides a catheter for fluid delivery through at least three injection needles into tissue outside of the interior wall of a target vessel of a human body. In some embodiments, the catheter is provided having a catheter body having a central axis extending in a longitudinal direction and a fluid injection lumen. The catheter can include at least three guide tubes adapted to advance distally and expand outwardly toward the interior wall of the target vessel. The catheter can include a handle located near a proximal end of the catheter. The handle can include a plurality of fittings. The catheter can include a fluid injection port located near a proximal end of the catheter. The fluid injection port can have a non-standard connector that is different from any other fitting on the handle of the catheter and configured to reduce the chance of accidentally injecting the ablative fluid into any other fitting. The injection port can be in fluid communication with the fluid injection lumen of the catheter. The catheter can include at least three injector tubes each comprising distal injection needles. Each of the at least three injector tubes can include an injection lumen in fluid communication with the fluid injection lumen of the catheter body. The at least three injector tubes are configured to be advanced outwardly, guided by the at least three guide tubes to penetrate the interior wall of the target vessel. The injection needles can have a distal opening for fluid delivery into the tissue outside of the interior wall of the target vessel.
The present disclosure, in some aspects, provides a catheter for fluid delivery through at least two injection needles into tissue outside of the interior wall of a target vessel of a human body. The catheter provided can include a catheter body comprising a central axis extending in a longitudinal direction and also having a fluid injection lumen. The catheter can include at least two guide tubes configured to advance distally and expand outwardly toward the interior wall of the target vessel. The catheter can include a mechanical support structure configured to support each expanded needle guiding element in a direction selected from the group consisting of a) radial, in which the mechanical support structure supports each needle guiding element in a radial direction, and b) lateral, in which the mechanical support structure supports each needle guiding element in a lateral direction. The catheter can include at least two injector tubes with distal injection needles. Each of at least two injector tubes can have an injection lumen in fluid communication with the fluid injection lumen of the catheter body. The at least two injector tubes with distal injection needles are configured to be advanced outwardly, guided by the at least two guide tubes to penetrate the interior wall of the target vessel. The injection needles can have a distal opening for fluid delivery into the tissue outside of the interior wall of the target vessel. The catheter can be sized and configured to obscure less than about 50%, 40%, 30%, or less of the cross sectional area of the lumen of the target vessel when the catheter is in a configuration penetrating the interior wall of the target vessel, for example, when the target vessel has a cross sectional area of between about 30 mm2 and about 300 mm2, between about 30 mm2 and about 150 mm2, between about 50 mm2 and about 120 mm2, or about 30 mm2, about 50 mm2, about 80 mm2, about 120 mm2, about 150 mm2, about 200 mm2, about 250 mm2, or about 300 mm2. As such the catheter of the present disclosure is improved over the Chan catheter for applications where obstructed blood flow is contraindicated including use in renal denervation where it is disadvantageous to cut off or reduce blood flow to a kidney. This includes renal denervation in dialysis patients, patients with only one functioning kidney and patients with already reduced blood flow to a kidney e.g. from renal artery stenoses.
The present disclosure, in some aspects, provides a method for fluid delivery to an interior wall of a target vessel. The method can include the step of providing a catheter body. The method can include the step of providing a mechanical support structure configured to support at least two guide tubes in a direction selected from the group consisting of a) radial, in which the mechanical support structure supports each guide tube in a radial direction, and b) lateral, in which the mechanical support structure supports each guide tube in a lateral direction. The method can include the step of advancing distally and expanding outwardly at least two guide tubes toward the interior wall of the target vessel. The method can include the step of deflecting the distally moving guide tubes outward toward the interior wall of the target vessel. The method can include the step of advancing distally and expanding outwardly at least two injector tubes with distal injection needles. The method can include the step of delivering fluid to the interior wall of the target vessel via the injection needles, wherein while delivering fluid the catheter body obstructs less than about 50%, 40%, 30%, or less of the cross sectional area of the lumen of the target vessel. The method can include the step of supporting each guide tube radially, by the mechanical support structure. The method can include the step of supporting each guide tube laterally, by the mechanical support structure. The method can include the step of penetrating the interior wall of the target vessel with the distal injection needles. The method can include the step of delivering fluid through the distal opening of the injection needles. The method can include the step of centering the catheter by touching the at least two guide tubes to the interior wall of the target vessel. The method can include the step of simultaneously advancing outward the at least two guide tubes. The method can include the step of simultaneously advancing outward the at least two injector tubes. The method can include the step of penetrating the tissue outside of the interior wall of the target vessel to an equal depth.
In some embodiments, the catheter can include a mechanical support structure having a deflection surface. The deflection surface deflects the guide tubes outward toward the interior wall of the target vessel. In some embodiments, the mechanical support structure is a central buttress support located internal to a distal portion of the catheter body. The central buttress support is adapted to support the two guide tubes. In some embodiments, the catheter can has a lateral support structure adapted to support the guide tubes as they expand outward. The lateral support structure can be, for example, a) a tubular shaft located near the distal portion of the catheter body, the tubular shaft having an opening through which at least one of the two guide tubes is advanced, b) an intraluminal centering mechanism attached to the two guide tubes, or c) a central buttress that also provides the radial support for the two guide tubes. In some embodiments, two or more of a) a tubular shaft located near the distal portion of the catheter body, the tubular shaft having an opening through which at least one of the two guide tubes is advanced, b) an intraluminal centering mechanism attached to the two guide tubes, or c) a central buttress that also provides the radial support for the two guide tubes may be combined.
In some embodiments, the catheter includes at least two tubular shafts located within a distal portion of the catheter body. Each of the tubular shafts can have a distal opening through which one of the at least two guide tubes is advanced. The catheter can have a closed position, wherein the distal ends of the distal injection needles are withdrawn into the at least two guide tubes and the at least two guide tubes are withdrawn into the at least two tubular shafts, wherein the closed position is configured to prevent needlestick injuries from the distal injection needles. In some embodiments, the mechanical support structure is coupled to a longitudinally movable mechanism. In some embodiments, the catheter can include a fully closed position, the fully closed position having the distal end of the injection needles being withdrawn into the guide tubes and the guide tubes withdrawn into the tubular shafts, the fully closed position preventing needlestick injuries from the sharpened distal end of the injection needles. The longitudinally movable mechanism can be an obturator.
In some embodiments, the catheter includes three needle guide tubes, three injection needles, and three injector tubes, wherein the distal end of each injector tube coupled to one of the injection needles. The catheter can have at least three guide tubes and three injector tubes with distal injection needles with each injection needle having a sharpened distal end. In some embodiments, the mechanical support structure can include an obturator movable in the longitudinal direction. In some embodiments, the mechanical support structure can include an intraluminal centering mechanism.
In some embodiments, two guide tubes have a curved distal portion with a first radius of curvature and the at least two injector tubes with distal injection needles have a curved distal portion with a second radius of curvature, wherein the first radius of curvature and second radius of curvature being preset to within about 40 percent, 35 percent, 30 percent, 25 percent, 20 percent, 15 percent, 10 percent, or less of each other. In some embodiments, the catheter includes a fixed distal guidewire. In some embodiments, the total internal volume or dead space from a proximal part to a distal end of an infusion flow path of the catheter is less than about 0.5 ml, 0.4 ml, 0.3 ml, or less. In some embodiments, the catheter includes a radiopaque marker attached to or within a portion of one or more of the structures selected from the group consisting of: a) the injection needle, b) the guide tubes, c) the catheter body, and d) the mechanical support structure. The radiopaque markers can be operably connected to a portion of one or more of the structures selected from the group of: a) the injector tubes with distal injection needles, b) the guide tubes, the mechanical support structure and c) the catheter body.
In some embodiments, the catheter includes a single injection port located near a proximal end of the catheter. The single fluid injection port can be in fluid communication with the fluid injection lumen of the catheter body. In some embodiments, the catheter includes an injection port located near a proximal end of the catheter. The fluid injection port can have a non-standard connector that is a different from any other fitting on the handle of the catheter. In some embodiments, a custom syringe having a distal end configured to mate with the non-standard connector is provided. In some embodiments, the catheter can have a control mechanism adapted to control the movement and outward expansion of the two guide tubes. In some embodiments, the catheter can have an injection needle control mechanism configured to control the movement and outward expansion of the injection needles. The guide tubes are cannulas that may also be called needle support elements and as such are typically tubular elements through which the sharpened injection needles are advanced toward the inside wall of the target vessel.
In some embodiments, disclosed herein is a method for ablating tissue that is located radially outward from the interior surface of a vessel of a human body with minimal pain to the patient. The method can include, for example one or more of the following steps: providing a tissue ablation catheter having a proximal end and a distal end, the catheter also having plurality of outwardly expandable needle guiding elements through which a plurality of injection needles may be advanced, the needle guiding elements and injection needles being located at a distal portion of the catheter; the distal portion of the catheter also including at least one support structure that supports the outwardly expandable needle guiding elements; advancing the distal end of the tissue ablation catheter to the site within a vessel of a human body where tissue ablation is to be performed; advancing the plurality of needle guiding elements supported by the at least one support structure to expand outwardly against the interior wall of the target vessel thereby centering the distal portion of the catheter; advancing the plurality of injection needles through the plurality of needle guiding elements and into the vessel wall; and injecting an ablative fluid through the plurality of injection needles into and/or beyond the adventitia of the target vessel over a time period of at least about 10, 20, 30, or more seconds. The ablative fluid can be an alcohol, such as ethanol. The method can also include the step of injecting additional ablative fluid into and/or beyond the adventitia of the target vessel, wherein there is a delay of about or at least about 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, 105, 120, 135, 150, 180, 210, 240, 270, 300, or more seconds between step e) and step f). The same, or two or more different fluids can be injected during one or more of the injection steps. The needle guiding elements can be advanced through openings in a side wall of the catheter, the openings forming at least a part of the at least one support structure.
Also disclosed herein is a transvascular method of minimizing pain during the treatment of extravascular tissue, comprising one or more of the steps of: providing a catheter having an elongate flexible body, a proximal end, a distal end, and at least one laterally deployable tissue penetrating element near the distal end; transvascularly positioning the distal end at a treatment site; deploying the tissue penetrating element into the vessel wall at a first depth; desensitizing pain nerves at the first depth into the vessel wall; deploying the tissue penetrating element into the vessel wall at a second depth; and ablating sympathetic nerves at a second, greater depth into the vessel wall. The method can also include deploying at least three laterally deployable tissue penetrating elements into the vessel wall. The deploying step can include first advancing a guide tube into contact with the vessel wall, and second advancing an injector tube out of the guide tube and into the vessel wall. The method can also include centering the catheter in the vessel by advancing three guide tubes into contact with the vessel wall. The desensitizing pain nerves step can include injecting a desensitizing agent through the tissue penetrating element. The ablating the sympathetic nerves step can include injecting an ablative agent through the tissue penetrating element. The desensitizing agent and the ablative agent can be the same agent, or different agents. The ablating the sympathetic nerves step can include delivering energy to the sympathetic nerves, and/or elevating or lowering the temperature of the sympathetic nerves. The desensitizing agent and the ablative agent can both be ethanol in some cases. The desensitizing step can be accomplished by delivering a first volume of ethanol at the site, and the ablating step can be accomplished by delivering a second volume of ethanol at the site. The first volume of ethanol and second volume of ethanol can be injected, for example, in a continuous, slow rate injection. The continuous, slow rate of injection can be, for example, about or no more than about 2 ml/min, about or no more than about 1.5 ml/min, about or no more than about 1.0 ml/min, about or no more than about 0.5 ml/min, or even less in some cases. In some embodiments, injection of the second volume of ethanol does not begin until at least about 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210, 240, 270, 300, or more seconds following completion of injection of the first volume of ethanol. In some embodiments, the first volume of ethanol is injected at a first rate such as for example a rate disclosed elsewhere herein, and the second volume of ethanol is injected at a second slower rate, faster rate, or the same rate, including certain rates disclosed elsewhere herein.
These and other features and advantages of this invention will become obvious to a person of ordinary skill in this art upon reading of the detailed description of this invention including the associated drawings and the claims.
In this configuration, the sheath 22 has been pulled back to allow the guide tubes 15 with radiopaque marker bands 27 to expand outwardly. If the elements 15 and 16 are not fabricated from a radiopaque metal, it is envisioned that the distal portion of the injector tube(s) 16 and guide tube(s) 15 would be marked with a radiopaque material such as gold or tantalum, or a piece of radiopaque material may be used to form or be located within the injector tubes 16 or the sharpened needles 19 to provide better visualization of the deployment of the INAS 50 using standard fluoroscopy.
The diameter L1 denotes the memory configuration for the fully opened guide tubes 15. For use in the renal arteries, L1 would typically be between 3 and 10 mm with 8 mm being a best configuration if only one size is made as very few renal arteries have a diameter that is larger than 7 mm. Also shown in
Different shapes are envisioned for the distal openings (or windows) 131 in the outer tube extension 104 where the guide tubes 115 exit. These possible shapes include a racetrack design with curved (e.g., round) proximal and distal ends and straight sides in the axial direction, and oval or round shapes. It is also envisioned that there could be a movable flap covering the opening 131 or a slit that could be opened to make the outer surface of the PTAC smooth for better delivery into the renal artery.
It is an important feature, in some embodiments of this invention that the guide tubes 115 are needle guiding elements for the ultra-thin injection needles 119. Specifically, prior art such as Jacobson that describe curved needles that are advanced outward from a central catheter to penetrate the wall of a target vessel, have needles that are advanced (naked) on their own from the distal end or side of a catheter. Without additional guiding and backup support during advancement, needles that are thin enough to essentially eliminate the risk of bleeding following penetration and withdrawal from the wall of the artery are generally too flimsy to reliably penetrate as desired into the vessel wall. Thus it is envisioned that a key aspect of the PTAC 100 of the present application is the inclusion of needle guiding elements such as the guide tubes 115 that allow the ultra-thin injection needles 119 to be reliably advanced into the wall of a target vessel to the desired depth.
A preferred embodiment of the PTAC 100 of the present application uses four different tubular structures instead of just an outer tube 102 and outer tube extension 104. Specifically, the proximal section would be a metal hypotube 82 shown in
In a preferred embodiment, the middle tube 103 attaches to, a proximal metal hypotube and the inner tube 105 would also attach to proximal portion formed from a metal hypotube. The structure of these tubes is shown in
An important aspect, in some embodiments of the presently disclosed PTAC 100 is to minimize the internal volume or “dead space” for the injection path. This reduces the needed amount of fluid that would be injected into the peri-vascular space before the ablative fluid is injected. In one version of the directions for use, the internal volume would first be flushed and filled with normal saline outside of the body before the PTAC 100 is inserted into the body. Ideally the dead space should be less than 0.3 ml and if possible, close to 0.1 ml. Any volume less than 0.5 ml would be helpful to minimize the amount of flushing fluid injected into the peri-vascular space prior to the injection of the ablative fluid.
The central buttress 121 shown in
This central buttress 121 is a mechanical support structure that provides radial support for the advanced guide tubes 115 that prevents the guide tubes 115 from backing away from the interior wall of the target vessel as the injector tubes 116 are advanced through the guide tubes 115 forward to their desired position 2-4 mm beyond the interior wall of the target vessel. In exceptional cases, the injection needles 119 at the distal ends of the injector tubes 116 might be advanced as deep as 8 mm beyond the interior wall of the target vessel. Lateral support for the guide tubes 115 is provided by the sides of the openings 131 that in combination with the central buttress 121 are key to the radial and circumferential/lateral support both during guide tube 115 advancement and outward expansions, and as backup during delivery of the injection needles 119 through the interior wall of the target vessel.
The central buttress 121 is disposed within the PTAC 100, and in some embodiments, within the outer tube extension 104. The central buttress 121 has a smaller diameter than the PTAC 100 and the outer tube extension 104. The central buttress 121 may be fixed, immobile, and/or non-expandable relative to the PTAC 100. The distal tip 145 of the central buttress 121 can be coupled (e.g., snap fit) with the tapered section 106. The central buttress 121 may be integrally formed within the PTAC 100 (e.g., the central buttress 121, the distal openings 131, and/or the tapered section 106 could be a single component molded or machined).
The buttress 121 may comprise a deflection surface, such as a curved or linear ramp. In some embodiments, the deflection surface is substantially parallel, parallel, substantially coaxial or coaxial to the longitudinal axis of the PTAC 100. In other embodiments, the deflection surface can be substantially perpendicular, perpendicular, substantially offset, offset, substantially angled, or angled to the longitudinal axis of the PTAC 100. The deflection surface and the longitudinal axis of the PTAC 100 may form an angle of, for example, approximately 20 degrees, 25 degrees, 30 degrees, 35 degrees, 40 degrees, 45 degrees, 50 degrees, 55 degrees, 60 degrees, 65 degrees, 70 degrees, between 30-50 degrees, and in some embodiments 45 degrees. The deflection surface can be substantially curved. In some embodiments, the deflection surface includes a concave surface. The deflection surface may include a convex surface near the proximal end of the PTAC 100 and a complementary concave surface near the distal end of the PTAC 100. The curved or concave surface may correspond to the radius of curvature of the unconstrained distal surface of the guide tube 115. The deflection surface may form a lumen. The lumen may be curved, bowed, linear, or non-linear. The lumen may correspond to the radius of curvature of the distal surface of the guide tube 115.
The deflection surface may be configured to direct the guide tubes 115 toward the distal openings 131. The distal openings 131 are located on tubular shaft 120. The number of distal openings 131 may correspond to the number of guide tubes 115 (e.g., 1:1 ratio), or the number of distal openings 131 may be more or less than the number of guide tubes 115. The distal openings 131 may abut the deflection surface. In some embodiments, the distal openings 131 are the same size and/or shape as the lumen, and in other embodiments, the distal opening is larger or smaller than the lumen. The distal portion of the central buttress 121 is shown in greater detail in
The deflection surface such as curved ramp 144 of the central buttress 121 and the distal openings 131 the tubular shaft 120 also provide lateral support that facilitates outward expansion purely in the radial direction for the guide tubes. Although the buttress 121 provides both radial and lateral support for the guide tubes 115, other embodiments as described herein may provide only radial support or only lateral support. Radial support for the guide tubes 115 is defined herein as being support for the guide tubes 115 in a direction that is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the PTAC 100. Lateral support for the guide tubes 115 is defined herein as being support for the guide tubes 115 in a circumferential direction that is perpendicular to the radial direction.
It is also an important feature, in some cases, that the radius of curvature of the distal portion of the injector tubes 116 have a central axis with the same, or nearly the same, radius of curvature as the central axis of the guide tubes 115 and of the central axis of the distal portion of the tubular shaft 120 that is formed within the central buttress 121 when measured in an unconstrained state. In addition, the length of the guide tubes 115 should be at least as long as the distal curved portion of the injector tubes 116 with distal needles 119. This design constrains the curved portion of each injector tube 116 within the lumen of the guide tube 115 so that the injector tube 116 cannot twist or change position.
The preformed radius of curvature of the injector tubes 116 can be similar to that of the guide tubes 115 so that the guide tubes 115 will maintain their position against the interior wall of the target vessel as the injector tubes 116 with distal injection needles 119 are advanced to penetrate the interior wall of the target vessel. Specifically, the radius of curvature of the central axis of the distal portion of the injector tube 116 can be approximately the same as the radius of curvature of the central axis of the guide tube 115. The radii of curvature of the central axes of the guide tubes 115 and the injector tubes 116 can be within 1 mm of each other, or within 0.2 mm of each other in some cases. Although a curved shape with a single radius of curvature is shown in
As seen in
It is clear from the drawing of
An important feature, in some embodiments of the PTAC 100 can be that the flow rate through the needle distal opening 117 for each needle 119 of the PTAC 100 of
The guide tubes 115 are advanced and retracted through the tubular shaft 120 with distal opening 131. The three guide tubes 115 are attached to each other near their proximal ends by the guide tube connector 132.
The outer tube extension 104 connects at its distal end to the tapered section 106 which in turn lies coaxially around the guide wire 110 with core wire 111 and outer layer 113.
Also shown in
It is envisioned that the central buttress 121 and distal openings 131 can, as shown in
While the preferred embodiment of the PTAC 100 has the guide tubes 115 with a pre-formed curved shape, flexible naturally straight guide tubes are also envisioned where the buttress 121 forces the straight guide tubes to curve outward against the interior wall of the target vessel.
While the term “central buttress” will be used herein, the key component of the buttress 121 is the ramp 144 that provides radial and some lateral support for the deployed guide tubes 115. Specifically, the curved ramp 144 of the buttress 121 supports and guides the outward motion of the guide tubes 115 as they exit though the distal openings 131 and also provide radial support for the guide tubes 115 and injection tubes, as they engage the interior wall of the target vessel. Additional lateral support is provided by the fingers 142 of the central buttress 121.
The shape of the ramp 144 or the buttress 121 may include proximal extensions or fingers that create a smooth curved or inclined surface to steer the guide tubes 115 outward as the guide tubes 115 are advanced distally through the opening 131.
While the central buttress shown in
Many of the components of the PTAC 100 are typically made from plastic materials such as polyamide, polyurethane, nylon or tecothane. These include the outer tube 102, middle tube 103 and inner tube 105, the outer tube extension 104, inner layer 127 and outer layer 123 of the guide tubes 115, the tapered section 106, the buttress 121, the guide tube connector 132 and the manifold 125. The manifold 125 can be a molded part or be epoxy or another resin that is injected to glue the injector tubes together within the lumen of the inner tube 105.
It is also envisioned that any or all of the inner tube 105, middle tube 103 or outer tube 102 could also be a metal hypotube or a metal reinforced plastic tube.
The injector tubes 116 would typically be made of a springy or shape memory metal such as nitinol. The radiopaque wire 118 and guide tube radiopaque marker 122 would be made of a radiopaque material such as gold, platinum or tantalum or an alloy of these or similar metals. The core wire 111 would typically be stainless steel and the outer layer 113 would be wrapped platinum or platinum iridium wire. The outer layer could also be a polymeric material. Any or certain portions of the outside of the PTAC 100 could be lubricity coated to provide improved performance. The injector tubes 116 and injection needles 119 should be smaller than 0.5 mm in diameter and preferably less than 0.3 mm in diameter to avoid any blood loss or leakage as the needles penetrate into the wall of the target vessel and are then removed.
The guide tube connector 132 connects the three guide tubes 115 to the middle tube 103 that provides the impetus for advancement and retraction of the three guide tubes 115. The motion of the middle tube 103 is produced by the motion of control mechanisms at the proximal end of the PTAC 100. The manifold 125 lies inside of the distal portion of the inner tube 105 and connects together the three injector tubes 116 so that advancement and retraction of the inner tube 105 provides simultaneous advancement and retraction of the injector tubes 116. Also shown in
It is also visible in
It is also envisioned that the penetration depth limitation could be a mechanism that limits the forward motion of the distal end of the inner tube 105 with respect to the guide tube connector 132. A ring or other structure situated between the distal end of the inner tube 105 or manifold 125 and the proximal end of the guide tube connector 132 would limit the forward (distal) motion of the distal end of the inner tube 105 and thus limit penetration of the needles 119 beyond the distal ends 129 of the guide tubes 115. Such a structure could be unattached, or attached to an internal structure of the PTAC 100 shown in
The renal artery and aorta are shown in cross-section so the lower guide tube 115 is actually touching a portion of the interior wall of the renal artery that is not shown because of the cross-section which splits the renal artery at 0 and 180 degrees. The third guide tube 115 is not seen as it is hidden behind the PTAC 100 but it too touches the interior surface of the renal artery wall. The radiopaque markers 122 on the guide tubes 115 allow the operator to visualize that the fully expanded guide tubes 115 are actually in contact with the interior wall of the renal artery. When the three guide tubes 115 are advanced outward, one guide tube 115 will touch the interior wall of the target vessel first and as the guide tubes are further advanced outward, this first touching guide tube will push the body of the PTAC 100 away from the wall toward the center of the vessel until the second guide tube 115 touches the interior wall of the target vessel. Then both touching guide tubes 115 will push the PTAC 100 further toward the center of the vessel until the third guide tube 115 touches the interior wall of the vessel. Because the guide tubes 115 here each the same diameter of expansion from the longitudinal axis of the PTAC 100, this will reproducibly place the distal portion of the PTAC 100 close to the true center of the vessel. Fluoroscopic imaging of the radiopaque markers 122 on the distal portion of the guide tubes provides visual confirmation of the correct centering of the guide tubes. This centering can also be confirmed by using contrast injected from the guiding catheter, after guide tube deployment. After centering, the guide tubes 115 are flush against the inside wall of the target vessel. It is generally advantageous to have the guide tubes 115 flush against the inside wall of the target vessel to provide the most radial and/or lateral support for the injector tubes 116 with distal injection needles 119. By providing radial and/or lateral support for the injector tubes 116 up to the inside wall of the target vessel, the distal injection needles 119 can be thin needles that will not cause blood loss. The thin needles may be flimsy and need such radial and/or lateral support provided by the guide tubes 115.
Of significance is that the emergence of the guide tubes 115 from the openings 131 in the outer tube extension 104 provides lateral support for the guide tubes 115 as they deploy outward. Radial support is provided by the central buttress 121 shown in
Some embodiments can include central buttresses, obturators and/or intraluminal centering mechanisms which provide lateral and/or radial support for the guide tubes 115. The mechanical support can be compact and/or longitudinally extending, reducing the diameter of the PTAC 100. The PTAC 100 is designed to allow much better blood flow. The catheter can be moved through the vessel without obstructing the blood flow through the vessel. In some embodiments, less than about 70%, 65%, 60%, 55%, 50%, 45%, 40%, 35%, 30%, 25%, or less of the cross-sectional lumen of the of the cross sectional area of the lumen of the target vessel is obscured. In some embodiments, the PTAC 100 obstructs less than 50% of the diameter and/or cross sectional area of the lumen, to prevent or minimize ischemia to distal organs and/or tissues. For Renal Denervation therapies for the treatment of hypertension, maintaining adequate blood flow to the kidneys, which in many cases are already somewhat compromised, can be important.
The guide tubes 115 can be expanded without obstructing or substantially obstructing the blood flow through the lumen. As shown in
The injection needle control mechanism 340 allows the user of the PTAC 100 to control the distal and proximal motion of the injector tubes 116 with distal injection needles 119. As mentioned above with respect to
The guide tube control mechanism 330 allows the user of the PTAC 100 to control the distal and proximal motion of the guide tubes 115 and includes the button 332 and the guide tube control cylinder 333. The button 332 when depressed, unlocks the motion of the guide tube control cylinder 333 with respect to the outer tube control cylinder 335. This will allow the relative longitudinal motion of the middle tube 103 with respect to the outer tube 102 of
The injection needle control mechanism 340 allows the user of the PTAC 100 to control the distal and proximal motion of the injector tubes 116 with distal injection needles 119 and includes the button 342 and the needle control cylinder 345. The button 342 when depressed, unlocks the motion of the needle control cylinder 345 with respect to the guide tube control cylinder 333. This will allow the relative longitudinal motion of the inner tube 105 with respect to the middle tube 103 of
The handle 300 shown in
Although
While a standard Luer or Luer lock fitting could be used for the ablative fluid connector fitting for the injection port 354, in some embodiments of the presently disclosed PTAC 100, that a non-standard fitting can be used for injection of the ablative fluid. In other words, the non-standard fitting is different than the fitting of the flushing ports 344 and in some embodiments is a fitting other than the standard Luer or Luer lock fitting. The non-standard fitting can be a unique shape (e.g., square, triangular, oval, oblong, trapezoidal, irregular polygon, regular polygon, etc.). The non-standard fitting can have a unique coupling between the fitting and the mating syringe (e.g., key, detent, twist-lock, snap-fit, etc.). The non-standard fitting can have a unique size (e.g., larger or smaller diameter than the other fittings on the handle). Because of the ablative/toxic nature of the ablative fluid, having a non-standard fitting for the port 354 would reduce the chance of accidentally injecting the ablative fluid into one of the other ports (e.g. 344) or into the standard Luer fitting in the “Y” adapter typically used with a renal guiding catheter. It would also prevent the operator from the potential error of injecting flushing solution or other agents contained in a conventional Luer lock syringe, through the lumen of the injection tubes. It would also be an advantage for the non-standard fitting port 354 to have a smaller lumen than a standard Luer fitting so as to minimize the catheter dead space/internal volume.
A custom syringe with the non-standard fitting of the opposite sex designed to connect to the port 354 would be provided separately or within the PTAC 100 package. Such a syringe could contain exactly the correct volume for the appropriate amount of ablative fluid to achieve renal denervation, for example 0.25 ml of ethanol. Because the volume of tissue to be treated will vary with the diameter of the renal artery, several syringes of volumes ranging from 0.1 ml to 0.5 ml may be provided, each with a non-standard connector to connect to the injection port 354. If saline flushing, or the injection of other fluids (e.g., contrast or an anesthetic) are part of the procedure, additional syringes could be provided that contain the appropriate volume and type of fluid for visualization, flushing, renal denervation or for pain relief. It is envisioned that the ablative solution fluid injection syringe with a non-standard fitting could have a different color or distinct marking indicia as compared to the syringe for flushing through a port such as the port 344.
The handle 300 also includes a gap adjustment cylinder 348 that when rotated in one direction reduces the penetration depth L2 shown in
The function of the handle 300 is to operate the PTAC 100 for Peri-Vascular Renal Denervation (PVRD). This procedure would include the following steps although not every step is essential and steps may be simplified or modified as will be appreciated by those of skill in this art:
It may also be highly desirable to eliminate step 8, and also in step 1 flush the internal volume/dead with the ablative fluid outside the body, instead of saline. This would be done with the guide tubes 115 and needles 119 fully deployed. It may also be desirable if this technique is used to rinse the distal portion of the PTAC 100 in saline prior to advancement of the catheter into the body in order to remove any of the ablative fluid from the surface of the PTAC 100 that might have been retained on the surfaces of the catheter during the flushing with the ablative fluid.
While the buttons 332 and 342, as described above, release the motion of control cylinders when depressed and lock when released, it is also envisioned that they could also be interlocked as follows:
The combination of the buttons 332 and 342 with the control mechanisms described above should make the use of the PTAC 100 reasonably simple and straight forward. The operator basically presses button 332 and pushes the guide tube cylinder 333 forward causing the guide tubes 115 to expand outward, then presses button 342 and advances the needles 119 forward to penetrate the wall of the renal artery. Injections are performed then the reverse procedure is done with button 342 depressed and the needles 119 retracted, then button 332 is depressed and the guide tube cylinder 333 is retracted in the proximal direction retracting the guide tubes 115 within the body of the PTAC 100.
While a push button activated handle where sections are pushed and pulled in the longitudinal direction to cause guide tube and needle deployment is shown in
It is also envisioned that although flushing and filling the injection lumens with normal saline as described in step 8 of the method above has the advantage of not allowing any of the toxic ablative fluid to accidentally be introduced into the renal artery during the procedure, another technique is possible with a low dead space PTAC 100. Specifically if the dead space is small, and the ablative fluid is ethanol, hypertonic or hypotonic saline, then the ablative fluid can be used to fill the dead space out of the body. Because of mixing with large amounts of blood going to the kidney, direct injection of even 0.5 ml of ethanol, hypertonic or hypotonic saline will not harm the kidney. This concept then eliminates the flush step after injection of the ablative fluid reducing the injection steps in the procedure from 2 per artery to one per artery. For example, if the dead space is 0.1 ml and the desired injection volume of ethanol is 0.2 ml then 0.1 ml of ethanol could be used to fill the dead space outside of the body. Then the catheter and needles would be deployed in the first renal artery. Then 0.2 ml additional ethanol would be injected which will deliver 0.2 ml into the peri-vascular space leaving 0.1 ml in the dead space. The needles 119 and guide tubes 115 are retracted, the PTAC 100 is deployed in the other renal artery and another 0.2 ml of ethanol would be injected. The needles 119 and guide tubes 115 are retracted and the PTAC 100 is removed from the body. In this abbreviated procedure, very little (<0.05 ml) ethanol should leak out into the renal artery and 10 times that amount will still not harm the kidney. Another advantage of this reduced step process is that only ablative fluid is delivered to the peri-vascular space which reduces the “dilution” of the ablative fluid by the volume of saline in the dead space that would be delivered first in the procedure above before the ablative fluid can be delivered.
It should also be noted that in one variation of the procedure having the cap 356 locked onto to the fitting for the injection port 354 prior to placing the PTAC 100 into the patient's body will certainly prevent any ablative solution from entering the renal artery during insertion of the PTAC 100 into the renal artery. Additionally, replacing that sealing cap 356 onto the fitting for the injection port 354 as the PTAC 100 is moved from one renal artery to the opposite renal artery will also prevent any ablative solution from entering the second renal artery. The cap 356 would also be locked onto the fitting for the injection port 354 as the PTAC 100 is removed from the patient's body. During the renal denervation procedure, the cap 356 would be removed only to inject ablative solution into the peri-vascular space of the treated vessel.
A stopcock attached to the port 354 could also be used such that when closed, it would prevent leakage of ablative fluid out of the needle distal openings 117 of
It is also envisioned that one could have any combination of use or non-use of flushing steps. For example, the PTAC 100 dead space could be prefilled with the ablative fluid, and then saline solution could be used to flush the ablative fluid into the peri-vascular space following deployment of the needles 119 and guide tubes 115. After the ablative fluid has been injected into the peri-vascular space, the needles 119 and guide tubes 115 could be retracted out of the peri-vascular space and the dead space could be refilled with ablative fluid flushing the saline out of the dead space. The other renal artery could then be treated.
The PTAC 100 can be packaged with the guide tubes 115 fully extended and the injector tubes 116 fully retracted. The reason for this is that the preferred embodiment of the guide tubes are made from plastic such as polyimide formed into a curve shape. Such a plastic material may lose its shape if it were packaged retracted back into the tubular shaft 120 which would straighten it. It is also possible to ship the device with the needles 119 at the distal end of the injector tubes 116 fully expanded as well to ensure maximum shape retention of the guide tubes 115 and the injector tubes 116. In this case, the device would be shipped in a protective housing to ensure handlers do not receive needle sticks.
It should also be understood that the handle 300 in
The PTAC 200 of
The core wire 211 provides connectivity with the central section of the PTAC 200 and extends distally to form the core of the fixed guide wire 210. Fixed wire devices and the formation of guide wires are well known in the art of medical devices.
The ICM 250 includes a distal ring 202, support struts 208, central portion 204 with radiopaque marker 206. The ICM 250 provides additional radial and circumferential/lateral support for the guide tubes 215 both during expansion and during advancement of the injector tubes 216 through the guide tubes 215. The outside of the central portion 204 also provides a small but flat or slightly curved surface to engage or touch the interior wall of the target vessel that can reduce the trauma to the vessel wall as compared with having the ends of the guide tubes 215 touch the wall. As can be seen in
It is envisioned that there are several techniques for creating the structure of guide tubes 215 attached to a distal ICM 250 as shown in
An alternative technique would have the guide tubes 215 made of plastic and a nitinol flat wire having three sections including a proximal section attached to the plastic tube a central portion with a flat horizontal shape and a distal curved ICM portion.
A sheath 212 with radiopaque marker band 213 is shown in
The guide tubes 215, central structure 204 and support struts 208 are formed from a shape memory alloy or springy metal such as nitinol. Specifically, in the embodiment shown in
It is also envisioned that the guide tubes 215 could be plastic such as shown in
Fischell et al. in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/643,070 shows several handle/proximal section configurations specifically designed to release self-expanding guide tubes and advance injection needles into or deep to (outside of) the adventitia of a target vessel. Such designs would work well in conjunction with the PTAC 200 of
While the PTAC 200 of
In some embodiments, an important feature of the PTAC 200 of the present application is the use of radial and lateral/circumferential support structures for the needle guiding elements/guide tubes 115 and guide tubes 215 of
The PTAC 380 also has an inner tube 305 with injection lumen 383 which is in fluid communication with the lumens of the injector/guide tube assemblies 315 which is in fluid communication with the lumen of the injection needle 319. The inner tube 305 is attached to the injector/guide tube assembly 315 through the manifold 325. The central buttress 321, similar to that of the central buttress 121 of
The distal nose 385 of the central buttress 321 provides the attachment for the nose 306. The outer tube 302, distal nose 306 or central buttress 321 may also include radiopaque markers or be made from a plastic with a radiopaque filler such as tungsten filled polyurethane. The central buttress 321 can extend a sufficient distance in the proximal direction so that the needle distal opening 317 can be completely withdrawn within the body of the PTAC 380 to avoid needlestick injuries to users of the PTAC 380.
The distal nose 306 would preferably be made from a relatively low durometer or soft plastic. The needles 319 can be made from any metal that will hold its shape although cobalt chromium alloys such as L605 or a shape memory metal alloy such as nitinol are preferred.
It is also envisioned that the PTAC 380 could have a distal fixed guide wire like the PTAC 100 of
The PTAC 380 can be substantially similar to the PTAC 100, and can be used in substantially similar manner as described herein. The PTAC 380 has the advantage of one less step in delivery of the needles as compared to the PTAC 100 of
In this embodiment of the PTAC 380, the injector/guide tube assemblies 315 are the needle guiding elements that expand outward to provide support/backup for the injection needles 319 as they are advanced through the wall of the target vessel.
The PTAC 400 has a distally attached fixed guide wire 420 with outer layer 425, core wire 411 and distal tip 428.
The distal portion of the PTAC 400 has the tapered section 426, radiopaque marker band 424 and proximal portion 423. This tapered unit, including elements 423, 424 and 426, is called an obturator 430. The obturator 430 is attached to the fixed guide wire 420 with tip 428, outer layer 425 and core wire 411. Other important features, in some cases, of this alternative embodiment are the radiopaque marker band 413 on the sheath 402 that in combination with the radiopaque marker band 424 on the obturator 430, provides indication of the position of the distal end of the sheath 402 relative to the obturator 430 so that the operator readily knows whether the PTAC 400 is in its closed position with the sheath 402 in its fully distal position and the guide tubes 415 and injector tubes 416 are thereby fully enclosed.
The preformed radius of curvature of the injector tubes 416 should be similar to that of the guide tubes 415 so that the guide tubes 415 will maintain their position against the interior wall of the target vessel as the injector tubes 416 with distal injection needles 419 are advanced to penetrate the interior wall of the target vessel. Specifically, the radius of curvature of the central axis of the distal portion of the injector tube 416 should be approximately the same as the radius of curvature of the central axis of the guide tube 415. The radii of curvature of the central axes of the guide tubes 415 and the injector tubes 416 can be within 1 mm of each other, or within 0.2 mm of each other. Although a curved shape with a single radius of curvature is shown in
As with the PTAC 100 of
In a first embodiment the guide tubes 415 are fixedly attached to the proximal conical portion of the balloon 444 and when the balloon 450 is expanded, the guide tubes are moved by the expanding balloon 450, outward until they touch the inside wall of the target vessel. Being attached to an inflated balloon 450 provides both radial and lateral mechanical support for the guide tubes 415. It is envisioned that there are several techniques for creating the structure of guide tubes 415 attached to the balloon 450. Upon expansion, the inflatable balloon 450 deflects the guide tubes outward toward the interior wall of the vessel. This embodiment provides significant enhancement in radial and lateral stability of the guide tubes 415 as compared to the design of the INAS 50 as shown in
In a second embodiment, the guide tubes 415 are manually advanced and retracted and the conical portion 444 of the balloon 450 acts as a deflection surface similar to the curved ramp 144 of the PTAC 100 of
In some embodiments, it is preferred that the expanded balloon 450 be smaller in diameter than the lumen of the target vessel. This will allow the guide tubes 415 to extend outward beyond the expanded balloon 450. This is shown in
In some embodiments, the guide tubes 415 may be attached to the inner tube 405. Then, only the injector tubes 416 would be capable of longitudinal movement within the PTAC 400.
Similar to prior embodiments the PTAC 400 can be configured to be advanced over a separate guide wire or have no guide wire at all. Also the guide tubes 415 and injector tube 416 can be combined similar to the design of the PTAC 380 of
For the configuration shown in
The balloon 450 may be compliant, semi-compliant or non-compliant, however an elastic compliant balloon can be preferred as it allows diameter of the expanded guide tubes 415 to be easily set by using different inflation pressures for the balloon 450. Attaching the guide tubes 415 to the outside of the balloon simplifies construction as compared to attempting to place guide tubes 415 within the balloon. This design also allows the distal end 429 of the guide tubes 415 to be the points of engagement with the interior wall of the target vessel so that the entire balloon 450 does not touch the wall. Having the balloon 450 touch the wall can remove some endothelial cells and produce neointimal hyperplasia which is undesirable. The balloon could typically be inflated to a pressure between 10 and 100 psi by injection of normal saline through the inflation lumen 433.
While
It is also envisioned that an inflatable balloon such as the balloon 450 of
As shown in the proximal section of
Also shown in distal section of
This configuration is advantageous as it reduces the probability that the point of the needle 119 will get caught on the inside of the guide tube 115 as the needle 119 is advanced.
While this specification has focused on use of the PTAC for use in ablation of tissue, it is also clearly envisioned that the apparatus and methods of
While the embodiments shown in
The present disclosure also envisions, in some embodiments, use of anesthetic agents such as lidocaine or bupivacaine, which if injected first or in or together with an ablative solution can reduce or eliminate any pain associated with the denervation procedure. As the sympathetic nerves to be ablated are quite deep beyond the outside of the media of the artery while the pain nerves are within or close to the media the chemical denervation system and methods as disclosed herein can advantageously be dramatically less painful than energy based ablation from inside of the renal artery. One advantageous inventive aspect of the method of use of, for example, the PTAC 100 of
A modification of this method to reduce or eliminate pain from a renal denervation procedure using ablative fluids is a two-step method with the first injection of fluid acting as an anesthetic and the later injection providing sufficient ablative fluid to denervate the sympathetic nerve fibers. There should be in some cases about or at least about a 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, or more second time delay between the first and second injections. It is also envisioned that two different fluids can be used in the two-step method. It is also envisioned that the two injection could be performed at different penetration depths. An example of this is where the first injection of an anesthetic agent is at a lesser depth and the second injection of an ablative fluid is at a greater depth.
Various other modifications, adaptations, and alternative designs are of course possible in light of the above teachings. Therefore, it should be understood at this time that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein. It is contemplated that various combinations or subcombinations of the specific features and aspects of the embodiments disclosed above may be made and still fall within one or more of the inventions. Further, the disclosure herein of any particular feature, aspect, method, property, characteristic, quality, attribute, element, or the like in connection with an embodiment can be used in all other embodiments set forth herein. Accordingly, it should be understood that various features and aspects of the disclosed embodiments can be combined with or substituted for one another in order to form varying modes of the disclosed inventions. Thus, it is intended that the scope of the present inventions herein disclosed should not be limited by the particular disclosed embodiments described above. Moreover, while the invention is susceptible to various modifications, and alternative forms, specific examples thereof have been shown in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not to be limited to the particular forms or methods disclosed, but to the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the various embodiments described and the appended claims. Any methods disclosed herein need not be performed in the order recited. The methods disclosed herein include certain actions taken by a practitioner; however, they can also include any third-party instruction of those actions, either expressly or by implication. For example, actions such as “expanding a balloon” include “instructing the expanding of a balloon.” The ranges disclosed herein also encompass any and all overlap, sub-ranges, and combinations thereof. Language such as “up to,” “at least,” “greater than,” “less than,” “between,” and the like includes the number recited. Numbers preceded by a term such as “approximately”, “about”, and “substantially” as used herein include the recited numbers (e.g., about 10%=10%), and also represent an amount close to the stated amount that still performs a desired function or achieves a desired result. For example, the terms “approximately”, “about”, and “substantially” may refer to an amount that is within less than 10% of, within less than 5% of, within less than 1% of, within less than 0.1% of, and within less than 0.01% of the stated amount.
This application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/296,688 filed on Mar. 8, 2016 which is in turn a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/841,662 filed on Aug. 31, 2015 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,226,278), which is in turn a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/266,726 filed on Apr. 30, 2014 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,526,827), which is in turn a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/752,062 filed on Jan. 28, 2013 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,740,849), which in turn is a nonprovisional application of U.S. Prov. App. No. 61/719,906 filed on Oct. 29, 2012. Each of the foregoing applications of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. Any and all applications for which a foreign or domestic priority claim is identified in the Application Data Sheet as filed with the present application, are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety under 37 CFR 1.57.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61719906 | Oct 2012 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16296688 | Mar 2019 | US |
| Child | 16984690 | US | |
| Parent | 14841662 | Aug 2015 | US |
| Child | 16296688 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 14266726 | Apr 2014 | US |
| Child | 14841662 | US | |
| Parent | 13752062 | Jan 2013 | US |
| Child | 14266726 | US |
