Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A catheter which can be utilized for mapping and/or for ablation in the chamber or chambers of a heart or another body organ has a flexible sheath the distal end of which can be advanced through a blood vessel or another body passage into a selected chamber. A wire-like guide has a distal end portion affixed to the distal end of the sheath and is slidable in a lumen of the sheath so as to form a loop adjacent to and located externally of the distal end of the sheath. The guide and its loop are used as a device for steering the distal end portion of a tubular conductor assembly to any one of a number of different positions relative to the surface surrounding the chamber. The size of the loop is reduced prior to introduction of the distal end of the sheath into and prior to extraction of such distal end from a selected chamber. The catheter can be provided with a second guide serving to form a second loop at the distal end of the sheath and/or with one or more further guides having distal end portions slidable along the single loop or along one of plural loops. The distal end portion(s) of the further guide(s) can serve to steer the distal end portion(s) of one or more conductor assemblies along the surface bounding a selected chamber.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim