Devices and methods useful for sealing bodily openings

摘要

Among other things, there are disclosed apparatuses and methods for medically sealing an opening in a vessel or wall. For example, in medical applications, a delivery tube is provided for insertion through a sheath into a vessel (e.g. a blood vessel). A dome-shaped seal fixed to a filament, an absorbent and/or compressible buffer, and a locking member are provided in the delivery tube. The delivery tube is configured so that it can be inserted into the vessel through a sheath. Tension is maintained on the filament to hold the seal against the tube or sheath. The sheath is pulled out, which pulls out the tube at the same time, leaving the seal over the opening in the vessel wall. The locking member compresses the buffer against the outside of the vessel and with the filament holds the seal in place against the inside of a vessel.

主权项

1. A tissue-opening closure system, comprising:
a seal device having a relaxed configuration with a domed shape, said seal while in said domed shape having a convex exterior surface, an opposite open concave interior surface, and a rim adjacent said convex and concave surfaces, said seal device adapted to contact a portion of tissue around a tissue-opening with at least part of the concave interior surface; a flexible stem fixed to said seal, said stem having a plurality of protuberances fixed thereto and a hole; a suture threaded through said hole and extending away from said seal device; a compressible buffer connected to said stem and being slidable with respect to said stem and said protuberances; a locking member having an opening, said locking member adapted to slide along said stem and allow said protuberances through said central opening whereafter said protuberances resist travel back through said opening, said locking member slidable along said stem so as to compress said compressible buffer, wherein the suture loops through the hole and has two free ends, said free ends extending through said buffer.