Abstract: A hand-actuated retention catheter 5 is disclosed. The retention catheter includes a tube 12, an overcoat layer 14 encircling the tube 12 and a cavity 16 interposed between the tube 12 and the overcoat layer 14. The cavity 16 encircles the tube and includes a bulbous balloon portion 24 and an enlarged fluid reservoir portion 22 interconnected and separated by a catheter sleeve portion 26 which has a narrowed outside diameter. The expandable balloon portion 24 can be expanded by compressing the fluid reservoir portion 22. Methods of making the hand-actuated retention catheter and methods of using the same are also disclosed.

Abstract: A balloon catheter, having a non-linear compliance curve, made up of a single layered balloon, that was molded from a polymeric material to have a specific nominal diameter and then shrunk to a diameter that is less than the specific nominal diameter. When the shrunk balloon is expanded it has the characteristics of a compliant balloon until its diameter has been expanded to its original specific nominal diameter after which it follows the non compliant compliance curve that it would have had it not been shrunk.

Abstract: An axial multi-chamber angioplasty balloon assembly for insertion into a blood vessel comprises a primary elongated, elastic, inflatable balloon having a first Young's Modulus, a distal portion, a proximal portion and an intermediate portion having a first diameter therebetween, defining a first chamber; a secondary elongated, elastic, inflatable balloon having a second Young's modulus, a distal portion, a proximal portion and an intermediate portion having a second diameter therebetween, defining a second chamber; the intermediate portions of the primary and the secondary balloons being attached in common; wherein the first and the second chambers define a variable dilation device for dilating an anatomical stricture having a first diameter-pressure characteristic curve defined by the primary balloon's Young's modulus, a second diameter-pressure characteristic curve defined by the secondary balloon's Young's modulus and a third diameter-pressure characteristic curve defined by the combined Young's modulus of

Abstract: A female incontinence control device includes a conduit having inlet and outlet openings for receiving, conducting and discharging urinary fluid. The device also includes structure for holding the conduit in position relative to the urethra such that the inlet opening is adapted to receive substantially all of the urinary fluids which drain from the bladder, and the outlet opening of the conduit is positioned outside the urethra. In one embodiment of the invention, the device can be entirely contained within the labia majora. In other embodiments of the invention the device extends through the urethra to the bladder. In all embodiments of the invention a drainage control valve is positioned within the conduit for location intermediate the urethral orifice and the labia majora for manual actuation to selectively control urinary flow through the conduit.

Abstract: A deformable sheath for an optical catheter is provided which includes an elongated, deformable hollow body having a normal predetermined shape which is compatible with its intended use in situ in a passageway in the patient. The body has a distal end and a proximate end with a plurality of channels extending therebetween. An optical catheter extends through one of the channels in the body, having a distal end aligned with the distal end of the body and a proximate end extending outwardly beyond the proximate end of the body, the catheter assuming the normal shape of the body. A substantially rigid guide wire is provided which is extendable through a second of the channels to straighten the body during insertion of the sheath into a passageway within the patient. This guide wire is removable from the body after insertion so that the body resumes its normal predetermined shape.

Abstract: A balloon dilatation catheter having a guidewire lumen that extends to the distal tip of the catheter, a balloon mounted on the distal end of the catheter and an inflation lumen extending through the shaft and communicating with the interior of the balloon is provided with an improved arrangement for filling the inflation lumen and balloon with liquid while purging air from the system. The device includes a one-way valve means carried by the catheter shaft within the balloon which permits fluid flow from the guidewire lumen into the balloon under a predetermined pressure greater than about one atmosphere. The system is used by first plugging the distal end of the guidewire lumen and then pressurizing the guidewire lumen with inflation liquid sufficiently to open the one-way valve means to permit inflation liquid to fill the balloon. As the balloon fills, air is forced out of the balloon through the inflation lumen and is vented through the open proximal end of the inflation lumen.

Abstract: A catheter for intubating a stoma formed by a percutaneous endoscopic technique includes a multi-lumen tube and an inflatable cuff for retaining the catheter in place. The tube includes a fluid lumen for conveying fluid into a patient and an inflation lumen having a port in communication with the interior of the cuff to allow for the egress and ingress of fluid to the cuff. The cuff has contained therein a resilient sponge-like material which has the property that it will remain in its compressed state for an ascertainable period of time after having been maintained in the compressed state for a predetermined period of time, e.g., at least 24 hours. A period of time, not less than the predetermined period of time, prior to the intubation procedure, the cuff is compressed to expel air from the cuff through the inflation lumen and to compress the sponge-like material inside the cuff. A tubular sleeve is applied to the outside of the cuff to maintain the cuff and sponge-like material in its collapsed state.

Abstract: A method and catheter for use in practicing the method are provided by which a highly concentrated medication or chemotherapeutic agent can be applied locally under sufficient pressure to cause the medication or agent to penetrate into the localized tissue. The total volume of medication or agent is quite small, well below levels that might cause an adverse reaction in other parts of the body. The catheter includes a thin walled flexible balloon having a plurality of minute holes through which medication may flow at a low flow rate. The balloon is inflated with the medication under pressure and the flow rate of the order of a few ccs per minute is controlled by the minute holes in the balloon. In practicing the method of the invention, the balloon is selected such that its inflated diameter will correspond to or be slightly greater than the diameter of the lumen into which it is to be placed so that when the balloon is inflated, it will contact intimately the surface of the lumen.

Abstract: An intra-arterial cardiac support system including multiple balloons for placement in the descending aorta with one balloon serving as a pumping balloon and one or more balloons serving as valve balloons, at least one of the valve balloons being positioned distal to the natural heart. The balloons are individually inflated and deflated to provide for sequential pumping action, with the sequence operating in timed relation to the sytstole and diastole of the natural heart.