Patent ID: 7828793

Claim:
A method for treating a blood vessel, the method comprising: inserting a flexible elongate device into a blood vessel of a patient; the elongate device having a shaft and an elongate, electrically driven heating element at a distal portion of the shaft; and the heating element being insulated to prevent electrical contact and electrical conduction with tissue; placing the heating element in a first treatment segment of the blood vessel; applying energy to the blood vessel with the heating element for a first dwell time while the heating element remains stationary in the first treatment segment, 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 lumen 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 additional sequential treatment segment indicated by an index marking marked on the flexible elongate device; and applying energy to the blood vessel with the heating element for corresponding additional dwell times 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 reduce the size of the blood vessel lumen to a desired degree in the new treatment portion; wherein the one or more additional sequential treatment segments comprises a final treatment segment indicated by a final treatment marking on the elongated device.