Abstract: A detachable introducer and method of using such introducer is disclosed for inserting an embolic coil deployment system into the tortuous vasculature of the human brain for placing an embolic coil within an aneurysm. The introducer includes a sheath having a lumen, a side opening and a longitudinal slit. A deployment catheter with a conical expander member is slideably disposed through the side opening of the sheath and through the lumen of the sheath. The conical expander member detaches the introducer from the deployment catheter through the longitudinal slit of the sheath.

Abstract: A balloon catheter for medical treatment of a patient, including therapeutic dilatation or deployment of medical devices such as stents or grafts. The balloon catheter has an “over-the-wire configuration, including a proximal hub defining an inflation port and a guidewire port, a flexible shaft defining an inflation lumen and a guidewire lumen, a balloon near a distal end of the catheter, and a distal guidewire port. At least a portion of the shaft has an inner tubular body defining at least a portion of the guidewire lumen, surrounded by an outer tubular body defining at least a portion of the inflation lumen. A proximal portion of the inner body is reinforced by a hypotube, which provides much greater column strength and torsional stiffness. A distal end of the hypotube provides a graduated flexibility transition with a distal spiral-cut segment, in which the pitch of the spiral cut pattern decreases to provide increasing flexibility.

Abstract: A balloon catheter for medical treatment of a patient, including therapeutic dilatation or deployment of medical devices such as stents or grafts. The balloon catheter has an “over-the-wire configuration, including a proximal hub defining an inflation port and a guidewire port, a flexible shaft defining an inflation lumen and a guidewire lumen, a balloon near a distal end of the catheter, and a distal guidewire port. At least a portion of the shaft has an inner tubular body defining at least a portion of the guidewire lumen, surrounded by an outer tubular body defining at least a portion of the inflation lumen. A proximal portion of the inner body is reinforced by a hypotube, which provides much greater column strength and torsional stiffness. A distal end of the hypotube provides a graduated flexibility transition with a distal spiral-cut segment, in which the pitch of the spiral cut pattern decreases to provide increasing flexibility.

Abstract: A detachable introducer and method of using such introducer is disclosed for inserting an embolic coil deployment system into the tortuous vasculature of the human brain for placing an embolic coil within an aneurysm. The introducer includes a sheath having a lumen, a side opening and a longitudinal slit. A deployment catheter with a conical expander member is slideably disposed through the side opening of the sheath and through the lumen of the sheath. The conical expander member detaches the introducer from the deployment catheter through the longitudinal slit of the sheath.