Patent ID: 8585713

Claim:
An expandable tip assembly adapted to address an occlusive thrombus within a blood vessel without distal embolic protection, comprising: a variable-stiffness hypotube having a proximal portion, a distal portion and a lumen sized and adapted to receive a guidewire; wherein the distal portion of the hypotube has a greater flexibility than the proximal portion; wherein the greater flexibility is provided by spiral laser cuts spaced along the distal portion of the hypotube; wherein a spacing between the spiral cuts decreases from a proximal end of the distal portion to a distal end of the distal portion; an expandable and reconstrainable scaffold coupled to the distal end of the hypotube, the scaffold being adapted to radially self-expand from a non-expanded configuration to an expanded configuration upon unsheathing of the scaffold and to transition from the expanded configuration to the non-expanded configuration upon re-sheathing of the scaffold; wherein the scaffold comprises a generally cylindrical configuration; wherein the scaffold comprises a laser-cut tube; wherein the scaffold comprises an open distal end without a distal embolic protection member or device; wherein a proximal end of the scaffold comprises a cut-out section adapted to facilitate re-sheathing of the scaffold; wherein the scaffold comprises a plurality of open cells defined by struts and connected by bridges; wherein each strut has two ends, with each end connected to one of the bridges; wherein the scaffold has a chronic outward force (COF) per unit length that does not decrease by more than 75% from a scaffold diameter of 1.5 mm to a scaffold diameter of 4.5 mm; and wherein the open cells are sized to promote at least one of vessel reperfusion or thrombus removal.