Over 1 million kidney stone cases occur each year in the U.S. It is also predicted that approximately 10% of the population will experience a kidney stone at some point in their lives, making an effective and easy method of treatment necessary. Existing calculus retrieval devices and products are not designed for use with laser blast fragmentation. A calculus must first be fragmented into smaller pieces before those pieces can be removed in a separate procedure, or in multiple procedures. This new device contains a flexible sheet that forms an expandable basket assembly to trap material more efficiently than devices currently on the market. The device can also be used to trap multiple pieces of material at one time, as compared to current devices with open basket assemblies that only target one piece of material at a time. Furthermore, the design of the new device allows for the insertion of a second medical device to perform a combined procedure. Using this combination, a laser lithotripsy procedure can be performed to fragment a kidney stone trapped in the basket, after which the fragments of the stone can all be removed together.

File Number: 2.903.107 

Web site: http://www.siumed.edu/adrfa/techavailable.html

Disease: Kidneys and Genito-Urinary System

Other Information: Current work is focused on building a compact prototype, which will then be used to generate initial human data.