Patent ID: 7488340

Claim:
A method for percutaneously sealing a puncture in a blood vessel wall, the puncture being at the termination of a tissue tract that passes through intervening tissues between the vessel wall puncture and a corresponding puncture through the skin, the method comprising: inserting a flexible stem into a delivery tube; in the process of inserting the flexible stem into the delivery tube, tensioning the flexible stem so that the flexible stem alters from a transversely expanded state to a generally linear state within the delivery tube; inserting the delivery tube including the joined flexible stem into an introducer already placed in the tissue tract, the flexible stem having a flange at a distal end thereof; pushing the delivery tube through the introducer until the distal end of the flexible stem is within a lumen of the blood vessel; withdrawing the delivery tube from the introducer; withdrawing the flexible stem until the flange is flush against the blood vessel wall; withdrawing the introducer from the tissue tract; and maintaining tension on a portion of the flexible stem by contact between part of the flexible stem and the tissue tract as the flexible stem returns to a transversely expanded state and wherein the flexible stem terminates beneath the skin when the method is completed.