TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure pertains to interventional medical systems, and more particularly to those that include relatively compact medical devices and associated tethering assemblies.

BACKGROUND

The traditional implantable cardiac pacemaker includes a pulse generator device to which one or more flexible elongate lead wires are coupled. The device is typically implanted in a subcutaneous pocket, remote from the heart, and each of the one or more lead wires extends therefrom to a corresponding electrode, coupled thereto and positioned at a pacing site, either endocardial or epicardial. Mechanical and/or MRI compatibility issues, which are sometimes associated with elongate lead wires and well known to those skilled in the art, have motivated the development of implantable cardiac pacing devices that are wholly contained within a relatively compact package, the entirety of which is configured for implant in close proximity to the pacing site. Such devices, designed to be fully implanted in the heart, may be referred to as an intracardiac device or a leadless implantable medical device.

A delivery catheter may be used to deliver an intracardiac device transvenously to an implant site. The delivery catheter may be designed to guide the device to the appropriate implant location in the heart, allow for proper positioning of the device, and to release the device after the device has been fixed at the implant site. The delivery catheter is then removed and the device remains at the implant site.

SUMMARY

Aspects of this disclosure related to a tethering assembly, which may be part of a delivery catheter for delivering an implantable medical device to an implant site. In some examples, the tethering assembly may be part of an interventional medical system that includes a relatively compact implantable medical device (IMD) (e.g., an intracardiac device). For example, the tethering assembly may be employed by a delivery catheter configured to contain the device and deliver the device to an implant site. According to aspects of this disclosure, the tethering assembly includes an attachment component that is configured to receive an attachment member or projection of the IMD. The attachment component of the tethering assembly has a passageway and a receptacle, and a wire of the tethering assembly moves from a first position in which the wire is disposed within the passageway (e.g., thereby narrowing the passageway and preventing the attachment member of the IMD from moving through the passageway) to a second position in which the wire retracts into the receptacle and out of the passageway (e.g., thereby allowing the attachment member of the IMD to be released from the tethering assembly).

According to aspects of this disclosure, the tethering assembly is reusable in that the wire is movable from the first position to the second position and from the second position to the first position. In an example for purposes of illustration, the IMD may be secured to the tethering assembly by moving the wire to the second position (in which the wire is retracted), inserting the attachment member of the IMD into the receptacle via the passageway, and moving the wire to the second position (in which the wire extends into the passageway, thereby preventing removal of the attachment member). The IMD may then be positioned at an implant site, and the IMD may be released by moving the wire from the second position to the first position (thereby unblocking the passageway). The tethering assembly may then be reloaded by repeating the foregoing steps. In some instances, the tethering assembly may increase the ease by which an operator secures the IMD for delivery to an implant site, and may also increase the ease by which the operator releases the device from securement after the device is implanted.

The details of one or more aspects of the disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the techniques described in this disclosure will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.

