Granted Patent B2

US 12,734,331 · App. 17/953,663 · Granted Sep 15, 2026

Inventors: Glade H. Howell (Draper, UT); Daniel B. Blanchard (Bountiful, UT); Jason R. Stats (Layton, UT); Kyle G. Thornley (Farmington, UT); Joe Spataro (Cottonwood Heights, UT); Eric W. Lindekugel (Salt Lake City, UT)

Assignee: Bard Access Systems, Inc.

A61M25/01A61M25/0097A61M25/0026

Abstract

Claims (29)

1 . A rapidly insertable central catheter (“RICC”) insertion assembly, comprising:

a RICC including:

a catheter tube;

a catheter hub coupled to a proximal portion of the catheter tube; and

one or more extension legs, each extension leg of the one or more extension legs having a distal portion coupled to the catheter hub;

an introducer assembly including:

a syringe; and

an introducer needle coupled to the syringe, the introducer needle including:

a needle shaft; and

a needle hub over a proximal portion of the needle shaft, the needle hub including a needle-hub through hole passing through a side of the needle hub and connecting to a needle-shaft lumen;

an access guidewire including:

a proximal portion disposed in a primary lumen of the RICC; and

a distal portion disposed in the needle-shaft lumen by way of the needle-hub through hole; and

a coupler coupling together the introducer assembly and the access guidewire,

wherein the coupler includes a rotatable lever of a coupler-housing lock of a coupler housing of the coupler, the coupler-housing lock having a locked state and an unlocked state respectively for locking and unlocking the needle hub from a distal coupler-housing piece of the coupler housing.

2 . The RICC insertion assembly according to claim 1 ,

wherein the locked state and the unlocked state of the coupler-housing lock are further respectively for clamping and unclamping the access guidewire.

3 . The RICC insertion assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the needle-hub through hole includes a gasket disposed therein configured to seal around the access guidewire and allow a vacuum to be drawn with the syringe without leaking through the needle-hub through hole.

4 . The RICC insertion assembly according to claim 3 , wherein the gasket includes one or more ‘O’-rings.

5 . The RICC insertion assembly according to claim 1 , wherein

the RICC includes a set of three lumens including the primary lumen, a secondary lumen, and a tertiary lumen.

6 . The RICC insertion assembly according to claim 5 , wherein the primary lumen has a primary-lumen aperture in a distal end of the catheter tube, the secondary lumen has a secondary-lumen aperture in a side of a distal portion of the catheter tube, and the tertiary lumen has a tertiary-lumen aperture in the side of the distal portion of the catheter tube proximal of the secondary-lumen aperture.

7 . The RICC insertion assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the RICC insertion assembly is in a ready-to-deploy state thereof with a guidewire tip of the access guidewire disposed just proximal of a needle tip of the introducer needle.

8 . The RICC insertion assembly according to claim 7 , wherein the guidewire tip is straight in the needle-shaft lumen in the ready-to-deploy state of the RICC insertion assembly but adopts a ‘J’ shape when advanced beyond the needle tip in a deployed state of the RICC insertion assembly.

9 . The RICC insertion assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the coupler housing includes a proximal coupler-housing piece nested in and locked to the distal coupler-housing piece by way of the coupler-housing lock in at least a ready-to-deploy state of the RICC insertion assembly.

10 . The RICC insertion assembly according to claim 9 , wherein the coupler-housing lock includes a cam configured to distally push the distal coupler-housing piece away from the proximal coupler-housing piece when the rotatable lever of the coupler-housing lock is rotated from the locked state to the unlocked state of the coupler-housing lock.

11 . The RICC insertion assembly according to claim 10 , wherein the cam is a wedge cam configured to cooperate with an edge of the rotatable lever as a follower of the cam.

12 . The RICC insertion assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the coupler housing includes a catheter clip configured for suspending the RICC in at least a ready-to-deploy state of the RICC insertion assembly.

13 . The RICC insertion assembly according to claim 12 , wherein the catheter clip is configured to suspend the RICC by the catheter hub or the one or more extension legs, thereby enforcing a loop in the access guidewire from the proximal portion of the access guidewire disposed in the primary lumen of the RICC to the distal portion of the access guidewire disposed in the needle-shaft lumen of the introducer needle.

Continuity (3)

References Cited (400)