Patent ID: 8328820

Claim:
A medical device for breaking a concretion in a body into smaller pieces and removing the pieces from the body, comprising: a dilator sheath adapted to penetrate into a passage of the body to reach the location where the concretion to be shattered into smaller pieces is located; a lithotripsy probe configured for shattering the concretion into smaller pieces; a tubular member mounted within the dilator sheath and having a tubular member proximal end, a tubular member distal end and an axially extending inner lumen provided within the tubular member to permit the lithotripsy probe to be inserted into the tubular member from the proximal end; and a retrieval basket coupled to said tubular member at the tubular member distal end, and configured for entrapping and retaining the concretion and the smaller pieces for their extraction from the body, said retrieval basket comprising a structure having a basket proximal portion and a basket distal portion, and constituted by a plurality of filaments extending from a basket proximal end towards the basket distal portion, and then returning to the proximal end after forming a plurality of filament loops in the basket distal portion, and a plurality of filament strands at the basket proximal portion; wherein said filament loops are overlapped and/or interlaced to provide a connection with each other so as to form a net defining a distal opening at the basket distal end and a plurality of side openings along the structure of the basket; said distal opening in the basket has such dimension so that to permit the lithotripsy probe to be protruded through said distal opening.