Patent ID: 7963962

Claim:
A method for performing a treatment inside a blood vessel having a lumen, the method comprising: inserting an access sheath into the blood vessel, the access sheath comprising: an internal portion for placement inside the blood vessel, an external portion for placement outside the blood vessel, a passage therethrough, and a reference location visible to the naked eye during treatment, that is located on the external portion of the access sheath; inserting an elongate member into the blood vessel through the passage in the access sheath, the elongate member comprising: a distal section comprising an electrically driven heating element, a proximal section several times longer than the distal section, and index markings marked at regular intervals along the proximal section, the heating element being insulated to prevent electrical contact with tissue; advancing the heating element to a first treatment segment of the blood vessel; adjusting the relative position of the elongate member and the reference location such that a first index marking is viewable in or near the reference location; applying energy to the blood vessel with the heating element while the heating element remains stationary in the first treatment segment for a first dwell time to reduce the size of the blood vessel lumen to a desired degree in the first treatment segment; moving the heating element along the blood vessel to one or more additional sequential treatment segments of the blood vessel wherein each additional sequential treatment segment comprises a new treatment portion and an overlap portion that overlaps with the preceding treatment segment, each sequential treatment segment indicated by at least one index marking marked on the elongate member; and applying energy to the blood vessel with the heating element for one or more additional dwell times that correspond to the one or more additional sequential treatment segments while the heating element remains stationary in each of the one or more additional sequential treatment segments, to thereby re-treat the blood vessel lumen in the overlap portion and treat the new treatment portion.