Patent ID: 8777943

Claim:
A catheter system, comprising: an elongate body having a coolant delivery lumen and a coolant return lumen; and an ablation assembly coupled to a distal end of the elongate body and being positionable through a working channel into in an airway of a patient, the ablation assembly being movable from a collapsed configuration having a collapsed cross-section to an expanded configuration having an expanded cross-section, the collapsed cross-section having a collapsed transverse dimension not more than about 6 mm and the expanded cross-section having an expanded transverse dimension of at least about 7 mm so as to contact an airway wall of the patient, the ablation assembly including — an energy emitter assembly having a tissue-contacting portion, the energy emitter assembly being configured to deliver energy through surface tissue of the airway wall to target tissue spaced radially outward from the surface tissue at a power sufficient to ablate said target tissue, a coolant directing element adapted to actively direct a portion of coolant from the coolant delivery lumen toward the energy emitter assembly to cool the tissue-contacting portion of the energy emitter assembly and to cool a first surface tissue in contact with the tissue-contacting portion of the energy emitter assembly so as to inhibit permanent damage to the first surface tissue while the energy emitter assembly delivers energy to the target tissue; and a cooling member configured to cool a second surface tissue adjacent to the tissue-contacting portion of the energy emitter assembly so as to inhibit permanent damage to the second surface tissue while the energy emitter assembly delivers energy to the target tissue; wherein the coolant directing element comprises a fluid delivery conduit fluidly coupled to the coolant delivery lumen and which at least partially wraps around the cooling member in the expanded configuration.