Patent ID: 8758398

Claim:
A closure system for closing an opening formed in a body lumen perimeterically defined by opposing arterial walls, said system comprising: a closure element adapted to deform from a natural, substantially resilient planar configuration to a substantially tubular configuration, having a substantially natural transverse cross-sectional dimension; a delivery assembly positionable through said tissue and into the opening in the body lumen, and having an elongated body, a carrier assembly and a distal tissue engaging device, said carrier assembly configured to be slidably received in a lumen of an introducer sheath, said carrier assembly including a carrier seat configured to carry and peripherally support said closure element in the substantially tubular configuration, in a first diameter, and said distal tissue engaging device selectably axially displaceable relative to said carrier seat between an engaging condition, in which said distal tissue engaging device is configured to engage the opposing arterial walls of said body lumen adjacent to said opening, and a closing condition, in which said distal tissue engaging device is configured to urge the engaged opposing arterial walls substantially transversely together such that the closure element can be deployed from the carrier assembly, while substantially maintained in the first diameter, into the opposing arterial walls, said distal tissue engaging device including two or more opposed engaging tongs having respective tips, said two or more tongs being configured to resiliently move radially outwardly from a longitudinal axis of the carrier assembly to extend said respective tips outwardly beyond an outer diameter of the carrier seat, wherein the tissue engaging device is configured to cooperate with the introducer sheath to enable movement of said two or more tongs between the engaging condition, with said two or more tongs resiliently moving radially outwardly to the engaging condition, and the closing condition and the closure element being configured to be deployed between said two or more tongs; and a pusher member slidably disposed about said elongated body for relative axial sliding displacement therebetween, said pusher member having a contact portion disposed proximally adjacent the closure element to selectively distally deploy said closure element from said carrier assembly, in the substantially tubular configuration, to engage said opposing arterial walls and to return to said natural, substantially planar configuration and said natural, transverse cross-sectional dimension such that the engaged opposing arterial walls are drawn substantially closed.