[54] EMBOLIC ELEMENTS AND METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR THEIR DELIVERY
[75] Inventors: Erin McGurk; Ronald Dieck, both of Palo Alto; William S. Tremulis,
Redwood City, all of Calif.
[73] Assignee: Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.
[ * ] Notice: This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
[21] Appl. No.: 08/849,678
[22] PCT Filed: Dec. 12, 1995
[86] PCT No.: PCT/US95/16022
§ 371 Date: Aug. 31, 1998
§ 102(e) Date: Aug. 31, 1998 PCT Pub. No.: W096/18343 PCT Pub. Date: Jun. 20, 1996
Related U.S. Application Data
Continuation-in-part of application No. 08/355,142, Dec. 13, 1994, Pat. No. 5,690,671.
Int. CI.7 A61M 29/00; A61B 17/00
U.S. C I 606 200; 606/1
Field of Search 606/1, 191, 194,
606/195, 198, 32, 34, 200; 623/1, 12
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An embolic element comprises a filament composed of a shape memory material having an unexpanded coil configuration and an expanded random matrix configuration. The embolic element may be delivered to a blood vessel treatment site in its coiled configuration over a delivery wire through a guide catheter (44). Usually, the coiled embolic element will be disposed over a helical section of the delivery wire prior to release. In that way, proper positioning of the embolic element is then expanded to its enlarged configuration by heating or otherwise exposing to a temperature over the transition temperature of the shape memory material.
23 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets
