Patent ID: 7534223

Claim:
A rapid exchange catheter comprising: a guide wire lumen extending through the catheter, a channel portion of the guide wire lumen including a channel opening the channel portion to an outside thereof, wherein a width of the channel is less than a maximum width of the channel portion, the channel extending substantially parallel to an axis of the catheter, wherein the channel opening includes a pair of walls that are separated from each other along a length of the channel portion, the walls being parallel to each other and to an axis of the guide wire lumen; and a slit intersecting only one of the walls and extending for a distance along a surface of the catheter at an acute angle with respect to the only one of the walls and extending proximally from the intersection to separate a substantially triangular portion of a surface of the catheter from an adjacent portion of the surface to form a guide wire ramp, the ramp extending into the lumen to permit a guide wire to pass distally therethrough while forcing out of the lumen through the channel a guide wire traveling proximally through the channel portion, wherein the substantially triangular portion includes a first side corresponding to a portion of the only one of the walls that has been intersected and a second side corresponding to the slit, the first and second sides being non-parallel to each other along their entire lengths and intersecting each other at the acute angle.