Abstract: The invention provides surgical needles with a porous distal portion from which a liquid injectate will weep or ooze multidirectionally under injection pressure while the porous distal portion of the needle is inserted into a body surface. The porous distal portion of the needle can be fabricated from a porous carbon, metal, ceramic or polymer and preferably has a decreasing gradient of impedance to fluid flowing to the point of the needle to compensate for the falling off of injection pressure as fluid moves towards the point, thereby ensuring uniform weeping of the injectate along the injection course. The needle is adapted for attachment to a catheter or syringe. In another embodiment, a surgical assemblage is provided wherein a porous distal portion having similar fluid flow characteristics is located along the distal end of a catheter, and a needle point is attached to the distal end of the catheter (e.g., a steerable catheter) for piercing tissue.

Abstract: The invention provides surgical needles with a porous distal portion from which a liquid injectate will weep or ooze multidirectionally under injection pressure while the porous distal portion of the needle is inserted into a body surface. The porous distal portion of the needle can be fabricated from a porous carbon, metal, ceramic or polymer and preferably has a decreasing gradient of impedance to fluid flowing to the point of the needle to compensate for the falling off of injection pressure as fluid moves towards the point, thereby ensuring uniform weeping of the injectate along the injection course. The needle is adapted for attachment to a catheter or syringe. In another embodiment, a surgical assemblage is provided wherein a porous distal portion having similar fluid flow characteristics is located along the distal end of a catheter, and a needle point is attached to the distal end of the catheter (e.g., a steerable catheter) for piercing tissue.

Abstract: A medical monitoring apparatus designed to be implanted in the vascular system is capable of sensing and transmitting via a telemetry link to an external monitor both pressure and temperature information. An internally or externally powered microcircuit component is supported on a stent-like structure and adapted to be placed in the vascular system. Placement in the ventricular septum permits measurement of pressure and temperature in the left ventricle without introducing thrombus generating materials in the left ventricle.

Abstract: A catheter for injecting medicants into the endocardium, myocardium or other portions of the cardiovascular system is presented where the catheter has apertures therein for ejection and retraction of a needle. The catheter is designed for the apertures in the catheter to press against the tissue to be injected in the heart while the heart is beating. A needle for inserting a prescribed dose of a medicant is ejected through the aperture and a plunger, pump, or diaphragm is moved to deliver a dose of the medicant to tissue adjacent the aperture. By use of the catheter gene therapy, wherein a small does of a gene are injected into the endocardium of the right or left ventricle, can be used to grow new blood vessels in the injected area of a damaged heart. The apertures in the catheter can be spaced at a prescribed distance for the dosage of medicant to form a precise pattern of injections in the area to be treated.

Abstract: A medical monitoring apparatus designed to be implanted in the vascular system is capable of sensing and transmitting via a telemetry link to an external monitor both pressure and temperature information. An internally or externally powered microcircuit component is supported on a stent-like structure and adapted to be placed in the vascular system. Placement in the ventricular septum permits measurement of pressure and temperature in the left ventricle without introducing thrombus generating materials in the left ventricle.

Abstract: An intravascular catheter having a flow diffusing distal tip includes a plurality of cuts formed through the tubular wall thereof so as to define a plurality of generally U-shaped flaps, the flaps being disposed in at least one and preferably two axially displaced bands. When contrast fluid or the like is injected under pressure into the proximal end of the catheter, the flow of the liquid exits the openings in which the plurality of flaps are hinged, causing the flaps to vibrate and effectively eliminate any tendency for the contrast media to be expelled as a jet from the open distal end of the catheter. Having an open distal end allows the catheter to be passed over a guidewire.

Abstract: The invention provides surgical needles with a porous distal portion from which a liquid injectate will weep or ooze multidirectionally under injection pressure while the porous distal portion of the needle is inserted into a body surface. The porous distal portion of the needle can be fabricated from a porous carbon, metal, ceramic or polymer and preferably has a decreasing gradient of impedance to fluid flowing to the point of the needle to compensate for the falling off of injection pressure as fluid moves towards the point, thereby ensuring uniform weeping of the injectate along the injection course. The needle is adapted for attachment to a catheter or syringe. In another embodiment, a surgical assemblage is provided wherein a porous distal portion having similar fluid flow characteristics is located along the distal end of a catheter, and a needle point is attached to the distal end of the catheter (e.g., a steerable catheter) for piercing tissue.

Abstract: The invention provides surgical needles with a porous distal portion from which a liquid injectate will weep or ooze multidirectionally under injection pressure while the porous distal portion of the needle is inserted into a body surface. The porous distal portion of the needle can be fabricated from a porous carbon, metal, ceramic or polymer and preferably has a decreasing gradient of impedance to fluid flowing to the point of the needle to compensate for the falling off of injection pressure as fluid moves towards the point, thereby ensuring uniform weeping of the injectate along the injection course. The needle is adapted for attachment to a catheter or syringe. In another embodiment, a surgical assemblage is provided wherein a porous distal portion having similar fluid flow characteristics is located along the distal end of a catheter, and a needle point is attached to the distal end of the catheter (e.g., a steerable catheter) for piercing tissue.

Abstract: A steerable catheter in which a guidewire can serve a dual purpose of deflecting a bendable element at a distal end of the steerable catheter and as a guidewire to facilitate the placement of a working catheter within the vascular system. The guidewire is adapted to be slidingly received within routing eyelets or the like where one of such eyelets is disposed at a distal end of the bendable element and another near the proximal end thereof. The guidewire can be readily advanced in the distal direction relative to the steerable catheter, but tensioning of the guidewire at its proximal end serves to deflect and bend the bendable element.

Abstract: A surgical instrument for creating holes of a predetermined diameter and depth in body tissue comprises a tubular catheter having a compression spring affixed at its distal end and attached to the distal end of that spring is a tissue ablating device which may, for example, comprise an electrosurgical monopolar or bipolar electrode that is connected by conductors extending through the lumen of the catheter to an electrosurgical generator at its proximal end. When the instrument is brought in contact with target tissue with a force sufficient to compress the coils of the spring against one another and then ablating energy applied, tissue will be removed as the spring is allowed to expand out to its uncompressed length. The depth of the hole thus created is equal to the difference between the lengths of the spring when compressed and uncompressed. If desired, a suitable drug can be delivered into the thus created hole via a lumen in the catheter.

Abstract: The present invention provides a blood flow measurement device for implantation either within or around a blood vessel. The invention blood flow measurement device comprises a hollow tubular body, such as a stent, having a sensor with a resonant circuit for establishing an electrical current flowing within the blood vessel. Once implanted and activated by an external power source, the flow of current in the circuit generates an electromagnetic signal indicative of the rate of blood flow in the associated vessel. The signal can be picked up by an external monitor to display blood flow information. Since blood flow information is obtained non-invasively once the device is implanted, the device can be used to monitor blood flow in a patient undergoing strenuous exercise, after having been given an appropriate drug, and the like.