CATHETER BALLOON WITH CONTROLLED FAILURE SHEATH

摘要

An elastic sheath designed to surround a conventional non-compliant angioplasty balloon. The elastic sheath incorporates a failure control mechanism that forces the sheath to fail concurrently with failure of the underlying angioplasty balloon. The elastic sheath ruptures rapidly and concurrently when the underlying balloon fails in an abrupt manner, with the rupture of the elastic sheath occurring over a relatively large area to significantly reduce the risk of damage to the adjacent vasculature.