{
  "patent_number": "US 4195637",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "Catheter System for Opening and Closing Body Passages",
  "original_title": "Catheter arrangement, method of catheterization, and method of manufacturing a dilatation element",
  "summary": "This 1980 patent describes a medical catheter system with a guide catheter and a special dilatation catheter that can expand to open or close body passages, like blood vessels.",
  "what_it_does": "This patent details a medical device system for procedures like angioplasty. It involves two main parts: a guide catheter and a dilatation catheter. The dilatation catheter has a special expandable tip, called a dilatation element, which has two separate internal channels (lumens). One channel is for injecting fluid to open up a passage or cavity, and the other is for inflating the dilatation element itself to a specific size. The guide catheter is designed to be stiff and allow for twisting (torsional forces) to help steer it. The dilatation element is described as having a foldable wall that can expand to a predetermined shape and diameter when pressurized. An example use would be to insert this system into a narrowed blood vessel, position the dilatation element at the blockage, and then inflate it to widen the vessel.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Catheter systems where the dilatation element is not foldable or pre-shaped.",
    "Catheter systems that do not have two distinct lumens within the dilatation element.",
    "Catheter systems where one lumen is not used for inflating the dilatation element.",
    "Catheter systems where the guide catheter cannot transmit torsional forces.",
    "Catheter systems without a marking element for X-ray localization."
  ],
  "filed": "1977-11-21",
  "granted": "1980-04-01",
  "expires": "1997-11-21",
  "status": "expired",
  "holder": "Schneider Medintag AG",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/schneider-medintag-ag",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Andreas Gruntzig",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/andreas-gruntzig"
    },
    {
      "name": "Hans Gleichner",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/hans-gleichner"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 256,
  "tags": [
    "medical_devices",
    "biotech",
    "pharmaceutical"
  ],
  "abstract": "A catheter arrangement for opening or closing hollow spaces, cavities, passages and the like comprising a guide catheter and a dilatation catheter. A dilatation element arranged at the dilatation catheter has an at least partially cylindrical foldable wall. The catheterization technique employable with such catheter arrangement contemplates introducing the guide catheter by forces applied in translatory and rotational direction and engaging at the surface layer of the guide catheter, into the near region of the hollow space to be opened or closed, then inserting the dilatation catheter through a bore of the guide catheter, with the dilatation element having in its internal space a negative pressure in relation to the hollow space which is to be opened or closed. The dilatation catheter is then inserted through the guide catheter to such an extent that the dilatation element arrives at the loation which is to be opened or closed and at that location is dilated to a predetermined form and to the necessary diameter with a pre-selected excess pressure. There is also disclosed a method of manufacturing a dilatation element for use with the catheter arrangement.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/4195637/balloon-angioplasty-catheter-gruentzig",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/4195637/balloon-angioplasty-catheter-gruentzig/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US4195637",
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}