Abstract: A device for treating material in a body of a patient includes an expandable basket having a projection for securing material within the basket. The projection has a distal end joined to a distal tip of the basket and a proximal end extending within a lumen of the basket.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for manipulating acoustic pulses is provided. The apparatus includes a wave-path with an acoustic network suspended within it, and the acoustic network includes at least one acoustic lens and at least one acoustic plate. The acoustic lens is structured to convert a plane pulse into a converging pulse, and the acoustic plate is structured to convert a single pulse into a split converging pulse. The method includes providing the foregoing wave-path and acoustic network, and converting a plane pulse to a split converging pulse by transmitting the plane pulse along the acoustic wave-path through the acoustic network.

Abstract: A medical device for fragmenting objects and aspirating remaining debris enables a physician or other medical personnel quickly and easily remove objects, such as kidney stones, from a patient. The medical device can include a dual-lumen elongated member and a handle coupled to the elongated member. A first one of the lumens provides a suction passageway, and a second one of the lumens receives a laser fiber for delivering laser energy to an object, such as a kidney stone, within the patient. The handle can include a positioning mechanism to enable the physician by manual manipulation to move and hold in place the laser fiber longitudinally within the second lumen.

Abstract: A medical device for fragmenting objects and aspirating remaining debris enables a physician or other medical personnel quickly and easily remove objects, such as kidney stones, from a patient. The medical device can include a dual-lumen elongated member and a handle coupled to the elongated member. A first one of the lumens provides a suction passageway, and a second one of the lumens receives a laser fiber for delivering laser energy to an object, such as a kidney stone, within the patient. The handle can include a positioning mechanism to enable the physician by manual manipulation to move and hold in place the laser fiber longitudinally within the second lumen.

Abstract: An acoustic focusing device whose acoustic waves are generated by laser radiation through an optical fiber. The acoustic energy is capable of efficient destruction of renal and biliary calculi and deliverable to the site of the calculi via an endoscopic procedure. The device includes a transducer tip attached to the distal end of an optical fiber through which laser energy is directed. The transducer tip encapsulates an exogenous absorbing dye. Under proper irradiation conditions (high absorbed energy density, short pulse duration) a stress wave is produced via thermoelastic expansion of the absorber for the destruction of the calculi. The transducer tip can be configured into an acoustic lens such that the transmitted acoustic wave is shaped or focused.

Abstract: A metal probe for intracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy has a point at its distal end with one or several lateral notches next to the probe end, These notches secure a calculus laterally against an adjacent duct wall and thus prevent it from bursting when it is crushed.

Abstract: A method for delivering compounds through epithelial cell layers using impulse transients is described. The method involves applying a compound to, e.g., the stratum corneum, of a patient and then inducing impulse transients to create transient increases in the permeability of epithelial tissue, thereby facilitating delivery of the compound across the epithelial cell layer.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for processing a material creates a cavitation nucleus in a portion of the material by focusing optical radiation at the portion of the material and then causing mechanical disruption in another portion of the material adjacent the cavitation nucleus by subjecting the cavitation nucleus to ultrasound waves.

Abstract: A medical device is provided which includes a suction conduit and an energy-transmitting conduit wherein at least some of the transmitted energy is directed to the distal region of the suction conduit. The device may include an optical apparatus for directing the energy. The device has applications in lithotripsy and tissue-removal in a patient.

Abstract: A medical device is provided which comprises a suction conduit and an energy-transmitting conduit wherein at least some of the transmitted energy is directed to the distal region of the suction conduit. The device may include an optical apparatus for directing the energy. The device has applications in lithotripsy and tissue-removal in a patient.

Abstract: Medical workstation has at least two separately constructed medical devices that can be operated separately and independently of one another, of which at least one is provided with a remote control. By means of the remote control of the one medical device it is possible to trigger functions of the other medical device or devices.

Abstract: A device for the electrolytic dissolution of urinary calculi in patients affected by urinary calculosis, the particularity whereof consists of the fact that it has: a tubular sleeve which is meant to be inserted in the urinary cavities of a patient, a cathode electrode accommodated in the sleeve, and at least one anode electrode which can slide within the sleeve so as to protrude, in an active position, from the sleeve in order to make contact with a calculus and dissolve it electrolytically in association with the cathode electrode.