Systems and methods for permanent female contraception
Medical devices and methods for treating and occluding a female patient's fallopian tubes to provide permanent birth control or sterilization.
1. A method for occluding a fallopian tube, comprising:
ablating a region of tissue at a site in the fallopian tube by advancing a catheter to the site and applying energy from the catheter;
damaging the region of tissue at the site with a working end of the catheter to produce a coagulum by actuating a cutting mechanism at the working end of the catheter to cause bleeding and coagulum accumulation at the site; and
preventing displacement of the coagulum at the site with a distal portion extending from the working end to promote adhesion of walls of the fallopian tube.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the distal portion comprises a detachable portion.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the detachable portion is bio-erodible, wherein the detachable portion remains in the fallopian tube to assist in formation of adhesion.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the detachable portion is configured to bio-erode from a group consisting of less than 5 days, less than 10 days, or less than 30 days.
5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the detachable portion comprises one or more recesses, wherein the ablated tissue is pressed or drawn into the one or more recesses.
6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the detachable portion comprises a copper layer covering a polymeric carrier.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein damaging the region of tissue at the site to produce a coagulum comprises applying suction to the ablated tissue using negative pressure generated by a negative pressure source.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein ablating a region of tissue at a site in the fallopian tube comprises ablating the mucosal layer tissue and the underlying muscle layer tissue of the fallopian tube at the site.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein ablating a region of tissue at a site in the fallopian tube comprises providing energy to a plurality of electrodes spaced apart on the catheter.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein ablating a region of tissue at a site in the fallopian tube further comprises activating an energy source to deliver energy to the plurality of electrodes to ablate the fallopian tube tissue over a length of 1 cm to 3 cm.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein damaging the region of tissue at the site to produce a coagulum comprises pressing ablated tissue into one or more recesses within the catheter; and
moving the cutting mechanism towards the ablated tissue to cut the ablated tissue.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the cutting mechanism is rotatable with respect to a longitudinal axis of the catheter.