Boston Scientific Scimed, Inc.

Rebecca Tin

Frank W Ingle

Robert F Bencini

James Mazzone

Byron Chun

David T Lawrence

Joe Koblish

Bob Bencini

Jim Mazzone

Josef Vincent Koblish

David G Lawrence

A cryotherapy system includes a cryotherapy catheter having an inflatable balloon portion and a pressure regulator. The inflatable balloon portion includes an outer balloon and an inner balloon within the outer balloon. The inner balloon is configured to receive during a cryotherapy procedure a cryogenic agent for extracting heat from body tissue at a desired location. The inflatable balloon portion is at a distal end of the cryotherapy catheter. The pressure regulator is adapted to maintain a positive pressure between the inner balloon and the outer balloon during a cryotherapy procedure.

Nested balloon cryotherapy

In some implementations, a method of ablating body tissue includes (a) locating an inflatable balloon portion of a cryotherapy balloon catheter at a treatment site internal to a patient's body, and inflating the inflatable balloon portion; (b) employing electrodes that are disposed on an expandable surface of the inflatable balloon portion to electrically characterize body tissue at the treatment site; (c) ablating the body tissue by supplying a cryotherapy agent to the inflatable balloon portion to cool the body tissue to a therapeutic temperature; (d) employing the electrodes to determine whether the ablating caused desired electrical changes in the body tissue; and (e) repeating (c) and (d) when it is determined that the ablating did not cause the desired electrical changes.

Balloon catheter with flexible electrode assemblies

A cryoablation catheter assembly includes a catheter having a coolant outtake region and receives a guide tube and a coolant transfer tube. The coolant transfer tube receives and transfers coolant from a coolant source to an expansion element coupled to a distal portion of the catheter. The expansion element includes an outer layer disposed over an inner layer such that the expansion element defines an inter-expansion-element space between the inner layer and the outer layer and an intra-expansion-element space within the inner layer. The intra-expansion-element space is in fluid communication with the coolant outtake region and the coolant transfer tube. The inter-expansion-element space is in fluid communication with a fluid pathway that transfers fluids to a fluid-drawing source. A pressure regulation system is disposed along the fluid pathway and passively regulates the pressure in the inter-expansion-element space using at least one check valve.

Systems and methods for regulating pressure levels in an inter-expansion-element space of a cryoablation system

Electrical mapping and cryo ablating with a balloon catheter

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Rebecca Tin