Patent ID: 7744584
Filing Date: 2010-06-29
Classification: A61L,A61M

Abstract:
1. A method for injecting a pharmaceutical agent into the tissue of a living host, the method comprising: positioning a catheter longitudinally within a lumen of a blood vessel; advancing a needle radially outwardly from the catheter through the blood vessel wall and past an external elastic lamina (EEL) to a distance such that a delivery aperture of the needle will be positioned at a distance from the inner wall of the blood vessel in a range from 10% to 75% of the mean luminal diameter of the vessel: confirming that the delivery aperture of the needle has radially penetrated into adventitial tissue beyond the external elastic lamina (EEL) of the blood vessel, wherein confirming comprises injecting contrast media through the needle aperture and observing whether (a) the media spreads longitudinally along the outside of the vessel wall indicating that the aperture is in adventitial tissue or (b) the media is constrained within the wall of the blood vessel indicating that the needle aperture has not reached the adventitial tissue; and injecting the pharmaceutical agent through the needle into the tissue if it has been confirmed that the aperture of the needle is positioned in adventitial tissue beyond the external elastic lamina (EEL).