Patent ID: 8075580

Claim:
A welding catheter system for establishing a fluid connection between adjacently situated first and second anatomical structures having walls and lumens, wherein an anastomosis channel extends from the lumen of the first anatomical structure, through its wall, through the wall of the second anatomical structure and into the lumen of the second anatomical structure, said system comprising: a proximal welding catheter member having a proximal approximation balloon having a deflated configuration, an inflated configuration and a first tissue-fusing member on a distal portion thereof; a distal welding catheter member having distal approximation balloon having a deflated configuration, an inflated configuration and a second tissue-fusing member on a proximal portion thereof; and a guidewire; the guidewire being advanceable from the first anatomical structure, through the anastomosis channel and into the second anatomical structure; the proximal and distal welding catheter members being advanceable over the guidewire with the proximal and distal approximation balloons in deflated configurations, to positions where the proximal approximation balloon is in the first anatomical structure and the distal approximation balloon is in the second anatomical structure, the proximal and distal approximation balloons being thereafter inflatable to inflated configurations and positionable so that the tissue-fusing members on the proximal and distal portions of the approximation balloons abut against the walls of the first and second anatomical structures adjacent to the anastomosis channel; the first and second tissue-fusing members located on the proximal and distal portions of the approximation balloons being thereby operable to cause portions of the walls of the first and second anatomical structures located adjacent to the anastomosis channel and between the proximal and distal approximation balloons to become fused to each other.