US 12,213,718 B2
Cryoprobe with stiffening element
Dror Trumer, Yokneam (IL); Satish Ramadhyani, Minneapolis, MN (US); and Modechay Bleiwies, Kiryat Haim (IL)
Assigned to Boston Scientific Scimed, Inc., Maple Grove, MN (US)
Filed by Biocompatibles UK Limited, Camberley (GB)
Filed on Nov. 1, 2019, as Appl. No. 16/672,156.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/823,366, filed on Mar. 25, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/754,352, filed on Nov. 1, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2020/0138499 A1, May 7, 2020
Int. Cl. A61B 18/02 (2006.01); A61B 17/00 (2006.01); A61B 18/00 (2006.01)
CPC A61B 18/02 (2013.01) [A61B 2017/0042 (2013.01); A61B 2018/00017 (2013.01); A61B 2018/00023 (2013.01); A61B 2018/00041 (2013.01); A61B 2018/0262 (2013.01); A61B 2018/0293 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A cryoprobe, comprising:
an elongate shaft having a distal end and a proximate end; and
an operating head at the distal end of the elongate shaft, wherein the operating head comprises an expansion chamber, the operating head being configured to ablate tissue that comes into contact with the operating head the expansion chamber being configured to accommodate high pressure expansion of a high pressure gas in excess of 1,000 psi;
the elongate shaft comprising:
a first passageway configured to provide the high pressure gas to the expansion chamber for the high pressure expansion and wherein the first passageway terminates in a Joule-Thomson orifice at its distal end;
a second passageway for evacuating gas from the expansion chamber, wherein the second passageway is coaxially arranged around the first passageway; and
a vacuum chamber coaxially arranged around the first passageway and the second passageway, the vacuum chamber is coextensive with a majority of a length of the second passageway;
the cryoprobe additionally comprising an elongate stiffening element located towards the distal end of the elongate shaft configured to reduce flexing of the elongate shaft;
wherein the elongate stiffening element comprises a grip portion having an inner diameter that is greater than a vacuum chamber wall and having proximal and distal tapered regions that provide a step down in the inner diameter to the vacuum chamber wall to hold the grip portion in place relative to the vacuum chamber at the proximal and distal ends of the grip portion, the grip portion being arranged about the elongate shaft such that the grip portion is circumferentially spaced apart from the vacuum chamber wall to thereby form an insulating space therebetween and arranged along the elongate shaft such that the grip portion is spaced apart from the operating head by a portion of the elongate shaft such that the grip portion is spaced apart from the tissue to be ablated when the operating head is ablating the tissue; and
wherein the grip portion is provided by a first sleeve and further comprising a coating provided over the first sleeve to thereby seal the first sleeve to the vacuum chamber wall, the cryoprobe further comprising a covering extending at least from the grip portion to a proximal portion of a tail portion of the shaft to thereby provide protection to the tail portion and reduce kinking within the tail portion, and wherein the coating is provided by a second sleeve that covers at least a distal portion of the covering.