Patent ID: 8562555
Filing Date: 2013-10-22
Classification: A61M

Abstract:
1. A method for disrupting a blockage in a patient's vasculature, said method comprising: advancing a single catheter within the vasculature near the blockage within a blood vessel, the single catheter having a catheter body with a longitudinal axis and comprising an irrigation lumen terminating in an irrigation port and an aspiration lumen separate from the irrigation lumen, wherein the aspiration lumen terminates in an aspiration port; delivering an irrigant fluid through the irrigation lumen in the single catheter in fluid communication with an inside surface of the irrigation lumen throughout the irrigation lumen and out the irrigation port laterally away from the catheter body and directly into and in fluid communication with the blood vessel; creating, with the delivered irrigant fluid, a localized turbulence in a defined region within the blood vessel; disrupting the blockage with the localized turbulence; and aspirating the disrupted blockage through the aspiration port of the aspiration lumen in the single catheter; wherein a region immediately proximal of the blockage is not isolated, wherein the irrigation port and the aspiration port are both present on the single catheter, and wherein the irrigation port and the aspiration port are separate from one another and disposed at locations spaced apart from each other by a fixed distance along the longitudinal axis of said single catheter at all times during the delivery and aspirating steps.