Material removal catheter and method

Abstract

A catheter device and methods useable to extract material from a body conduit, e.g., a blood vessel, are provided. The catheter comprises a flexible catheter advanceable into the body conduit, an opening in a wall of the catheter in fluid communication with a material collection chamber, and a controllably arcuate segment near the distal tip of the catheter and the opening. The catheter may include a sliding member, located within a lumen of the catheter, used to move the material entering the catheter through the arcuate segment opening, into the material collection chamber and away from said opening. The catheter may include a single mechanism utilized to both generate a vacuum to cause material to enter the catheter at the arcuate segment opening and also cause the sliding member to travel, inside the catheter, moving material away from the opening and into the material collection chamber.

1 . A catheter for insertion into a biological conduit, comprising:
 an elongate catheter shaft having a proximal end and a distal end;   a material collection chamber located within the catheter shaft distal end;   a controllably arcuate segment of the distal end of the catheter shaft configured to selectively transition between a straight configuration and a curved configuration, without substantially altering a cross-section of the controllably arcuate segment,   the controllably arcuate segment including at least one opening that creates a fluid path between the material collection chamber and an exterior portion of the catheter shaft.