| 20110295168 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NEGATIVE PRESSURE THERAPY - Devices that employ external compression stocking-type garments in the treatment of edema, chronic wounds, deep venous thrombosis prevention or claudication all share a number of significant limitations. These include the frequent need for custom fitting to assure an appropriate fit, vigilant maintenance to assure a continued “good fit,” limited compliance with proper use by patients and difficulty of application. There is a large body of evidence demonstrating that patients often decline to wear the compressive stockings as prescribed or in the form that would be most beneficial because they find these devices to be difficult to put on and take off. Building on the limitations of existing therapies, and distilled lessons learned from the field of prosthetics and wound healing, the present invention employs vacuum-assisted negative pressure to provide compression and help pump fluid from the tissues of affected limbs. The device is embodied in the form of a flexible stocking-like garment that will utilize a pumping mechanism to generate negative pressure around the limb and thus create vacuum compression that will mobilize fluid in a limb and increase venous return to the heart. Through the use of a circumferential wrap, the present invention provides a major advance in both the distribution of vacuum and the securing of the device over the limb. | 12-01-2011 |
| 20090030435 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ANCHORING CARDIOVASCULAR IMPLANTS - Methods, devices and systems facilitate retention of a variety of therapeutic devices. Devices generally include an anchoring element, which has been designed to promote fibrotic ingrowth, and an anchored device, which has been designed to firmly engage the complementary region of the anchoring element. The anchoring element may be placed in a minimally invasive procedure temporally separated from the deployment of the anchored device. Once enough time has passed to ensure appropriate fixation of the anchoring element by tissue and cellular ingrowth at the site of placement, the anchored device may then be deployed during which it firmly engages the complementary region of the anchoring element. In this manner, a firm attachment to the implantation site may be made with a minimum of required hardware. Some embodiments are delivered through a delivery tube or catheter and while some embodiments may require laparoscopy or open surgery for one or more of the placement procedures. Some embodiments anchor devices within the cardiovascular tree while others may anchor devices within the gastrointestinal, peritoneal, pleural, pulmonary, urogynecologic, nasopharyngeal or dermatologic regions of the body. An alternative embodiment provides for the placement of the anchoring element and anchored device simultaneously, but allows for their removal separately. This embodiment allows the device, which may be placed only temporarily and be designed to be removed, to experience significant fibrotic ingrowth, but then to be easily detached from the ingrowth-anchored region to allow for simple and quick device removal. | 01-29-2009 |
