Patent ID: 8002725

Claim:
Apparatus for removing emboli from a vessel during an interventional procedure, the apparatus comprising: a catheter having a proximal end, a distal end, a distal, blood inlet port at the distal end, and a lumen, the proximal end in fluid communication with the distal, blood inlet port via the lumen, the distal end configured for intravascular placement in the vessel; the catheter also having first and second ports and a third, blood outlet port, said first, second and third ports disposed between the proximal end and the distal end; an actuator comprising an actuator passageway, the actuator passageway comprising inflow and outflow paths, the actuator coupled to the catheter via the inflow path at the first port and the outflow path at the second port; a flexible liner disposed within the lumen of the catheter, the liner selectively movable between a first position collapsed against an interior surface of the catheter to occlude the second and the third ports while permitting aspiration of blood from the vessel, through the distal, blood inlet port, through the lumen, through the first port and into the inflow path, and a second position wherein the liner expands into the lumen to open the second and third ports and to create a space defining a return path connecting the second and third ports; the lumen, the actuator passageway and the return path defining a loop path; a filter disposed along the loop path; and whereby blood can flow in a first direction from the vessel, through the distal, blood inlet port, along the loop path, through the third, blood outlet port to be reperfused back into the blood vessel as filtered blood.