Patent ID: 6847849

Claim:
A surgical instrumentation kit for minimally invasive implantation of a sacral stimulation lead through a foramen of the sacrum in a patient to electrically stimulate a sacral nerve, the sacral stimulation lead of the type having a lead body extending between a lead body proximal end and a lead body distal end, the lead body having a lead body diameter extending from the lead body proximal end and lead body distal end, the lead body further enclosing at least one electrical conductor extending between at least one proximally located electrical connector adapted to be coupled to an electrical stimulation pulse generator and at least one distally located stimulation electrode adapted to apply electrical stimulation to a sacral nerve, the kit comprising: a sacral stimulation lead; and a needle having a needle diameter and needle length extending from a needle distal end capable of penetrating body tissue and a needle proximal end, the needle adapted to be grasped by a medical clinician with the needle distal end directed toward and inserted through an entry point of the skin or a skin incision posterior to the sacrum and guided along an insertion path into a foramen to locate at least a distal portion of the needle extending alongside a sacral nerve and a proximal portion of the needle extending from the entry point away from the patient's skin; and a dilator having a dilator body diameter, a dilator body length extending between a dilator proximal end and a dilator distal end, and a dilator body lumen extending from the dilator proximal end to the dilator distal end and having a dilator body lumen diameter sized in operative relation to the lead body diameter and the needle diameter to selectively receive the needle and the lead body therein, wherein the dilator is adapted to be inserted over the needle proximal end to locate the needle within the dilator body lumen and to be advanced distally over the needle through the insertion path to dilate the insertion path to the dilator diameter, the needle is adapted to be withdrawn through the dilator body lumen, the stimulation lead is adapted to be advanced through the dilator body lumen to locate the stimulation lead electrode into operative relation to the sacral nerve, and the dilator is adapted to be withdrawn over the stimulation lead body, wherein if the needle proximal end comprises a hub, the hub is cut off prior to inserting the dilator over the needle proximal end, wherein the needle body comprises depth marks enabling visualization of the depth of insertion of the needle through the insertion path, wherein the dilator body comprises depth marks, and wherein the needle body depth marks correlate to the dilator body depth marks so that the depth of insertion from the skin of both the needle body and the dilator is ascertainable from an exposed needle body depth mark and an exposed dilator body depth mark.