ENDOPROSTHESIS DELIVERY CATHETER WITH SEQUENTIAL STAGE CONTROL

摘要

A delivery catheter for delivering, orienting and releasing an endoprosthetic implant in a body lumen includes an elongate sheath adapted to maintain an expandable implant in a low profile configuration at the distal end of the sheath and a control handle at the proximal end of the sheath. An implant retainer is engageable with the trailing end of the implant and is connected to the handle. The implant retainer is controllably movable within the sheath to enable relative movement between the sheath and the implant. The sheath can be moved between a forward implant-capturing position in which the implant retention device is contained within the sheath and a rearward implant release position in which the implant retainer is disposed forwardly beyond the end of the sheath. A moveable mechanism associated with the handle includes detents to limit the extent of movement of the moveable portion of the handle to provide a sequential stage control that requires deliberate manipulation of the handle in order to progress from one stage of the delivery cycle to another.