referring to fig1 the inventive catheter is shown generally at 10 and is of well known construction with an inner shaft 12 and an outer shaft 14 . connected to the outer shaft 14 is a retraction assembly shown generally at 16 , which is comprised of a collapsible accordian section 18 and a stent sheath section 20 . for more information on the collapsible retractable sheath please refer to u . s . pat . no . 5 , 534 , 007 and pct / us96 / 07143 filed may 17 , 1996 , both of which are commonly owned with this application and the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference . a medical device such as stent 22 is carried on inner shaft 12 under retraction assembly 16 , as is well known in the art . stent 22 can be self - expanding or balloon expandable . the inventive catheter may be used to delivery endovascular stent grafts , vena cava filters , aneurysm repair particles , self - expanding stents , balloon expandable stents , or the like . an annular collar 26 is attached to the proximal portion of stent sheath 20 and a shape memory contraction member 28 is connected to annular collar 26 . in this embodiment the shape memory contraction member 28 is a one - way nitinol coiled wire spring , which after martensitic to austenitic transition has a shortened longitudinal length , causing annular collar 26 to be retracted proximally , collapsing accordian section 18 of the retractable outer sheath 16 and retracting stent sheath 20 so the medical device such as stent 22 can be delivered . as is well known in the art nitinol can be made with an austenitic final ( a f ) temperature above body temperature . at room temperature the nitinol wire is in its martensite phase and can be easily deformed . in the first embodiment the contraction member 28 is made from nitinol wire , formed into a coil and heat set into a spring shape . after the spring is made , the spring is deformed at room temperature to elongate the spring . one end of the spring is attached to the annular collar 26 and the other end is fixedly attached to the inner shaft 12 , at bumper 37 . in the first embodiment the shape memory contraction member 28 takes the form of a spring , however it should be understood that any geometry which resulted in a reduced longitudinal length , causing retraction could be utilized . the length of the spring would determine the amount of retraction and can be selected for various size stents . an alternate embodiment is an elongate nitinol wire which shortens up longitudinally upon transition ( muscle wire ). with a one meter long wire which contracts 8 % for example , a retraction of 80 mm could be provided , which is adequate for the various stent lengths in common use . other shape memory alloys can provide various longitudinal contraction as a percent of length and could be utilized as well , if desired . contraction member 28 could also take a zig - zag shape . the single wire 28 could also be replaced with a plurality of smaller diameter wires which could be braided , intertwined or the like , discussed below in more detail in connection with fig2 and 3 . power supply 30 supplies power to rheostat 32 which supplies current to the nitinol spring 28 via lead wire 34 . the nitinol spring 28 acts as a resistor and heats up , which causes the nitinol to go through its transition temperature and assume its memorized shape . the transition temperature must be above body temperature . when the current flow is stopped , the spring 28 will stop contracting . depending on the medium surrounding the spring 28 heat loss will vary and hence the time to stop contraction will vary as well . by replacing a manually operated pull wire with the inventive shape memory contraction member greater control of the retraction is achieved by using the rheostat to control the electrical input into the system . this will eliminate the jerking which can result from manual retraction of a pull wire , which can be caused by excessive force being used to overcome the high frictional and compressive forces created with larger stents . positive lead wire 34 is connected to contraction member 28 through contraction chamber 39 . the negative lead wire is shown at 35 . contraction member 28 extends through contraction chamber 39 and is attached to annular collar 26 . to protect the body from electrical and thermal conduction , either the contraction member 28 or contraction chamber 39 or both may be thermally and / or electrically insulated . although in the first embodiment the section of the contraction member 28 between contraction chamber 39 and annular collar 26 is nitinol , contraction member 28 could be made of a different material such as stainless steel if desired . the geometry of the spring coil provides the contraction which retracts the outer sheath 16 , so only the portions of contraction member 28 in the contraction chamber 39 needs to be manufactured of shape memory alloy . referring now to fig2 stent 22 is shown with balloon 24 beneath it for dilation of a balloon expandable stent . stent sheath 20 acts as a protective sheath for the stent and is withdrawn using shape memory actuator 28 . the actuator or contraction member 28 is shown as multiple wires twisted and / or braided together . referring now to fig3 a third preferred embodiment of the inventive catheter is shown in which actuator 28 is comprised of multiple wires coiled in parallel . if the wires are insulated , the distal ends of the wires can be connected and the wire leads are then both at the proximal end of the contraction member 28 . using smaller wires coiled in parallel enables the profile of the actuator 28 to be reduced while maintaining the ability to generate the same retraction force as a single larger wire . in this embodiment the accordian section 18 is replaced with a sliding sleeve design where stent sheath 20 moves proximally over the contraction chamber lumen 40 during retraction of stent sheath 20 to expose stent 22 . the sliding sleeve section could also be designed to slid under lumen 40 if desired . referring now to fig4 a fourth embodiment of the inventive catheter is shown in which the contraction member 41 is a shape memory braided wire tube . shape memory contraction member 41 is connected to stent sheath 20 via annular collar 26 . upon heating , shape memory contraction member 41 , moves proximally , hence moving stent sheath 20 proximally . it should be understood from the above description of the different embodiments that the contraction member may consist of single wires , parallel wires , braided wires , twisted wires , or combinations thereof shaped into a coil . also , the contraction member could consist of a braided tube comprised of single wires , parallel wires , braided wires , twisted wires , or combinations thereof . it should also be understood that contraction member 28 or 41 could be heated using current , as in fig1 - 4 , or could be heated conductively , either by being conductively connected to a heat source or by being bathed in a warm fluid bath . it should also be understood that the shape memory contraction member 28 or 41 could be manufactured of one - way or two - way shape memory alloy . as is well known in the art two - way shape memory alloy takes two different shapes with different temperatures . therefore , with two - way shape memory alloy contraction member 28 could contract at a first temperature selected during manufacture and expand at a second selected temperature . this would allow the retractable outer sheath 16 to be closed if the user changed their mind about delivery or during delivery . the inventive device can deliver other medical devices other than stents and can be used in connection with fixed wire , single operator exchange ( soe )/ rapid exchange ( rx ) or over the wire ( otw ) catheter configurations . a fifth embodiment of a shape memory retraction catheter is shown in fig5 and 6 , which shows a schematic view of a distal end of a catheter in both an undeployed and deployed position , shown respectively in fig5 and 6 . in this embodiment a shape memory alloy retraction device is utilized to retract sheath 20 to release stent 22 for deployment . the shape memory alloy retraction device consists of first compressed spring 50 , which is fixedly attached to the distal end of the catheter at 52 and is attached to the annular at 54 , and second spring 56 which is attached to the annular collar at 58 and fixedly attached to the catheter at 60 . second compressed spring 56 is made of a shape memory alloy ( sma ) which is formulated to be austenite at body temperature , which is approximately 37 ° c ., and is designed to exert a distal force which is greater than the proximal force of first spring 50 at body temperature . first spring 50 is not made of shape memory alloy in the preferred embodiment , but could be made of sma with a very low a f temperature , so that it did not change states with the cold water flush . cold water flushing causes second spring 56 to transform to a martensite state , in which the proximal force exerted by spring 50 , which is not affected by the cold water flushing , is greater than the distal force of second spring 56 . the greater force exerted by spring 50 when spring 56 is martensitic moves the sheath 20 proximally to release the stent 22 for deployment . although cold water flushing is preferred , it should be understood that any known medium cooling device could be utilized to cause second spring 50 to transform . with suitable design changes and if desired , second spring 56 could be heat actuated , if the transformation temperature is above body temperature . an important feature of the fifth embodiment is that springs 50 and 56 are designed so that spring 50 has a proximal force which is less than the distal force of second spring 56 when spring 56 is austenitic , but greater than the distal force of spring 56 when spring 56 is martensitic . however , it should be understood that the positions of first spring 50 and second spring 56 could be switched and by suitable and opposite selection and design , second spring 56 could exert a proximal force on the sheath 20 which is less than the distal force exerted on the sheath 20 by the first spring 50 , when the second spring 56 is in its martensitic state . however , when spring 56 is in its austenitic state it could be selected and designed to exert a proximal force on sheath 20 which is greater than the distal force exerted on the sheath 20 by the first spring 50 . an alternate embodiment for the device of fig5 and 6 would be to make both spring 50 and spring 56 of nitinol with equal a f & gt ; 37 ° c . ( i . e . martensite at body temperature ). with each of spring 50 and 56 connected to its own separate electric resistance heating ( not shown ), sheath 20 could be cycled back and forth as alternate springs 50 and 56 change from martensite to austenite by resistance heating . a sixth embodiment of a shape memory retraction catheter is shown in fig7 and 8 , which shows a schematic view of a distal end of a catheter in both an undeployed and deployed position , shown respectively in fig7 and 8 . in this embodiment the retractable sheath 20 includes a stop 60 extending from the proximal end of sheath 20 . stop 60 is engaged by a shape memory latch 62 , which is fixedly attached to the catheter . a compressed spring 64 is arranged to exert a proximal force on sheath 20 , which is held in the undeployed state by shape memory latch 62 as shown in fig7 . in fig8 latch 62 is shown in a released position , which allows spring 64 to move sheath 20 proximally to release the stent 22 for deployment . latch 62 may be actuated by either cooling or heating as discussed above , with suitable material selection . it should also be understood that latch 62 could be designed to soften to permit retraction . the shape memory latch 62 is shown in both its engaged and released states in fig9 and 10 , respectively . as seen in fig9 when the latch tip 66 is in its martensitic state , it angles downwardly to abut stop 60 . as seen in fig1 , when the latch tip 66 is in its austenitic state , it straightens to release stop 60 , allowing spring 64 to move sheath 20 proximally . the above examples and disclosure are intended to be illustrative and not exhaustive . these examples and description will suggest many variations and alternatives to one of ordinary skill in this art . all these alternatives and variations are intended to be included within the scope of the attached claims . those familiar with the art may recognize other equivalents to the specific embodiments described herein which equivalents are also intended to be encompassed by the claims attached hereto .
the inventive stent delivery system includes a catheter having a retractable outer sheath near its distal end . a shape memory contraction member having a memorized contracted shape is connected to the retractable outer sheath . a heat generating device connected to the shape memory contraction member causes the shape memory contraction member to heat up to its transition temperature and assume its contracted position , retracting the retractable outer sheath . another embodiment utilizes 2 springs , a “ normal ” spring and a shape memory alloy spring , the two springs selected and designed so that the “ normal ” has an expansion force which is less than sma spring when the sma spring is austenitic , but greater than the sma spring when the sma spring is martensitic . yet another embodiment utilizes a shape memory latch which in its martensitic state abuts a stop to prevent a spring from moving the sheath proximally , but in its austenitic state releases the stop , allowing the spring to retract the sheath to release the stent for deployment .