GROUNDING OF A SHIELD WITHIN AN IMPLANTABLE MEDICAL LEAD

摘要

Grounding of a shield that is located in an implantable medical lead may be done in many ways. The shield may be grounded directly to tissue from the lead body at one or more points along the lead body. The pathway for grounding may be a direct current pathway or be capacitively coupled. The pathway for grounding may utilize an exposed or nearly exposed shield at one or more points along the lead body. A jacket forming the lead body may have an outer layer removed at these points to provide the RF pathway to ground. Alternatively, the jacket may be doped with conductive particles at these points. Metal conductors such as ring electrodes and/or lead anchors may be attached to the lead at one or more points to provide the RF pathway to ground.