SISTEMA A CATETERE PER LA RIMOZIONE CONTROLLATA DI OSTRUZIONI BIOLOGICHE MEDIANTE ENERGIA RADIANTE

摘要

A catheter is used to controllably apply radiant energy in a patient's body, such as in a blood vessel to drill through vascular obstructions. The catheter emits the radiant energy from its distal end in a pattern which defines a relatively small working region in which the energy density level is sufficiently high to remove the biological material but beyond the working region, the energy density of the beam decays sharply so that biological material beyond the working region is not removed and the beam will not have sufficient energy density to puncture the blood vessel wall. The catheter is a of elongate flexible tubular construction having a fiber optic wave guide which terminates within the catheter and is secured in alignment with an optical system at the distal end of the catheter. The catheter includes openings adjacent the distal end which communicate with the lumen and enable delivery of fluid to the blood vessel or withdrawal of material from the blood vessel.