TAVR Ventricular Catheter

摘要

A catheter for positioning a valve during a transcatheter aortic valve replacement is formed from a resilient hollow body conformable to a guide wire when a guide wire is passed in through an upper opening in the hollow body and through the hollow body. When the guide wire is retracted, the catheter deploys to form a substantially straight upper shaft portion that extends downwardly from the upper opening and a distal ring perpendicular to the upper shaft portion. The distal ring approximates the size and shape of the patient's aortic valve annulus. A lower loop connects the upper shaft portion of the catheter to the distal ring. An outer surface of the distal ring is radiopaque, and the distal ring comprises openings for dispersing radio opaque medium used in imaging of the patient's aortic valve annulus. The deployed catheter is retracted until it snugly contacts the aortic valve annulus. The distal ring will be viewed as a straight line when the x-ray C-arm is properly aligned with the aortic valve annulus.

主权项

1. A method of positioning an x-ray C-arm in coplanar alignment with an aortic valve, the method comprising:
advancing a guide wire into a patient's aorta, across the patient's aortic valve annulus, and into the patient's left ventricle cavity; advancing an undeployed catheter along the guide wire into a patient's aorta, across the patient's aortic valve annulus, and into the patient's left ventricle cavity; retracting the guide wire until the undeployed catheter deploys to form a deployed catheter, the deployed catheter comprising
a distal ring approximating the size and shape of a patient's aortic valve annulus, the distal ring comprising a radiopaque outer surface and a plurality of openings for dispersing contrast medium; anda substantially straight upper shall connecting to the distal ring via a plurality of curves, the upper shaft disposed substantially perpendicularly to the distal ring, the distal ring, the upper shaft and the plurality of curves all formed unitarily from a resilient hollow tube; retracting the deployed catheter until the deployed catheter snugly contacts the patient's aortic valve on the ventricular side of the aortic valve; injecting radio opaque fluid into the deployed catheter to confirm catheter position; positioning the C-arm using images of the distal ring.