Spiral balloon catheter for renal nerve ablation

摘要

A catheter comprises a flexible shaft having a length for accessing the renal artery. A balloon arrangement, dimensioned for deployment within the renal artery, is provided at the shaft's distal end and fluidly coupled to a lumen arrangement. A balloon body is configured to complete at least one revolution of the shaft's distal end to form a spiral configuration thereabout, and is secured to the shaft by one or more movable mounting arrangements. The balloon body supports an electrode arrangement for ablating perivascular renal nerves in a substantially spiral pattern. A cooling arrangement cools at least the electrode contact regions during ablation. The distal end of the shaft has a stiffness sufficient to oppose a force produced by the balloon body when inflated that tends to contort the shaft's distal end and to maintain a substantially constant apposition force between the electrodes and an inner wall of the renal artery.

主权项

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a catheter comprising a flexible shaft having a lumen arrangement, a proximal end, a distal end, and a length sufficient to access at least the renal artery from a percutaneous access location of a patient; a balloon arrangement provided at the distal end of the shaft and fluidly coupled to the lumen arrangement, the balloon arrangement dimensioned for deployment within the renal artery and comprising:
an elongated balloon body configured to complete at least one revolution of the shaft's distal end to form a spiral configuration thereabout; anda mounting arrangement provided at the distal end of the shaft and configured to maintain the balloon body in the spiral configuration during expansion and contraction of the balloon body; an electrode arrangement provided on the balloon body and defining one or more electrode contact regions of the balloon body, the electrode arrangement configured to ablate perivascular nerves of the renal artery in a substantially spiral pattern; and wherein at least the distal end of the shaft has a stiffness sufficient to oppose a force produced by the balloon body when inflated that tends to contort the shaft's distal end and to maintain a substantially constant apposition force between the electrode contact regions and an inner wall of the renal artery.