Devices, systems, and methods facilitating navigation through a body passage, particularly a tortuous body passage. An expandable member is mounted with respect to an element of the device or system and is shiftable from a delivery configuration to an expanded configuration. In the expanded configuration, the expandable member facilitates navigation of the device and/or system through a tortuous section of the body passage. The expandable member may include an expandable basket-like element formed of one or more elements shiftable from a generally elongated configuration when the expandable member is in the delivery configuration to a curved or bowed configuration when the expandable member is in the expanded configuration. Additionally or alternatively, the expandable member may include an inflatable balloon. The system and method may include delivering a device such as a locator element to a target site to be identified from a remote location.

Retrieval of material from vessel lumens can be improved by electrically enhancing attachment of the material to the thrombectomy system. The system can include a catheter having a distal portion configured to be positioned adjacent to a thrombus in a blood vessel, an electrode disposed at the distal portion of the catheter, and an interventional element configured to be delivered through a lumen of the catheter. The electrode and the interventional element are each configured to be electrically coupled to an extracorporeal power supply.

A method of reducing the risk of clinical sequelae to catheter induced vascular injuries may include introducing a guide wire into a vascular sheath residing in a blood vessel, proximally retracting the vascular sheath while leaving the wire in place, and observing indicia of the presence or absence of a vascular injury caused to the blood vessel by the vascular sheath or a procedural catheter previously advanced through the vascular sheath. If indicia of a vascular injury are observed, the method may further involve proximally retracting the guide wire to position the inflatable balloon adjacent the injury and inflating the balloon to reduce blood flow past the injury, while leaving the guide wire in place to provide subsequent access to the injury. The inflatable balloon can be inflated and deflated through a valve positioned at the proximal end of the guide wire.

A medical instrument that includes a needle and an expandable member located at a distal end of the needle. The expandable member includes a blocking member. The expandable member is configured to move tissue away from a distal end of the needle and/or from a distal end of a tubular member that is in fluid communication with a substance source. A substance is configured to be expelled into the anatomy through the expandable member. The blocking member is configured to restrict or prevent the substance from being expelled through the portion of the expandable member that includes the blocking member.

The present disclosure relates to a method and a device for treating heart failure by normalizing elevated blood pressure in the left and right atria of a heart of a mammal. The present disclosure includes methods for creating and maintaining an opening in the atrial septum. Tools for making an opening and enlarging the opening are also disclosed. Use of the techniques and tools described herein prolongs the patency of an intra-atrial pressure relief opening.

A stent graft delivery system and method for implanting a stent graft includes and employs at least one control rod that extends along a luminal wall of a stent graft and at least one ligature. The ligature extends about radial stents. Rotation of the control rod or a tube extending about the control rod wraps the ligature about the control rod, thereby radial constricting the stent about which the ligature extends.

A method may include accessing a terminal branch of an ophthalmic artery through a face of a subject. Additionally, the method may include positioning a device within the ophthalmic artery of the subject and treating at least one of a blockage, a stenosis, a lesion, plaque or other physiology in at least one of the ophthalmic artery or a junction between an internal carotid artery and the ophthalmic artery.

A medical-device position adjusting method includes inserting a guide wire farther forward than a lesion area of the body lumen from the port member; inserting an anchor device into the body lumen and fixing the guide wire to an inner wall surface of the body lumen by the anchor portion at a position farther forward than the lesion area; inserting the medical device from the port member along the guide wire to a position of the lesion area; and fixing the guide wire and the port member with the proximal-end fixing member, causing the guide wire to move in an insertion/pulling-out direction through the operation unit so as to change a path of the guide wire in the body lumen, and adjusting a position of the medical device in the lesion area.

A steerable intravascular catheter includes a handle assembly having opposed proximal and distal end portions and defining a longitudinal axis therebetween. An elongated sheath extends from the distal end portion of the handle assembly, has opposed proximal and distal end portions, and includes a tubular body wall forming a central lumen for accommodating the introduction of a device and a fluid lumen radially outward from and parallel to the central lumen. The distal end portion of the elongated sheath is deflectable relative to the proximal end portion of the elongated sheath. A rotatable actuation assembly is associated with the handle assembly for controlling deflection of the distal end portion of the elongated sheath. An inflatable occlusion balloon is positioned on an outer surface of the distal end portion of the elongated sheath. The fluid lumen of the elongated sheath is in fluid communication with an interior of the balloon.

A manipulator, including an elongated chassis containing a U-shaped channel defining a distal direction and a proximal direction. The manipulator also includes an adjuster that is configured to slide in the U-shaped channel. The adjuster includes a first wheel which on rotation translates a guidewire positioned in the adjuster along an axis of the guidewire, and a second wheel which on rotation rotates the guidewire positioned in the adjuster about the axis of the guidewire. The adjuster also includes a port, distal to the first and the second wheel, that is configured to accept a tubular balloon and the guidewire.