CTO Crossing Device Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 33.8% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees hold 329 of 972 records in scope, but the next tier drops off fast — a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants fills the rest of the ranking.
- Filings grew 95% from 2021 to 2024. Annual filings rose from 43 in 2021 to 84 in 2024, the last year publication lag lets you read cleanly; 2025-26 counts will keep rising as filings catch up in the record.
- A61B and A61M dominate, imaging and informatics barely register. 71.0% of records sit in diagnosis-and-surgery classes and 57.8% in body-fluid device classes, while image processing and healthcare informatics each cover under 2% of the 972 records.
Filing growth compares 2021 (43 records) with 2024 (84) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 972 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the patent record shows about CTO crossing technology
Chronic total occlusion crossing devices sit at the intersection of guidewire mechanics, catheter delivery and lesion-crossing strategy. The patent record spanning 2015 to mid-2026 tracks a field built around two clinical routes — antegrade dissection and retrograde approach — and the hardware that supports both: escalating wire stiffness, penetration-force-optimised tips, and microcatheters built to navigate calcified lesions. Filing activity concentrated early in guidewire and catheter mechanics before imaging and informatics classes began appearing as thin, recent layers on top of that base.
The 972 records in scope span receiving offices led by the United States, followed by European and PCT filings, with smaller but active dockets in Germany, Australia and Canada — consistent with a device category cleared through overlapping regulatory regimes rather than a single dominant jurisdiction.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 972-record dataset: filing volume by year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, the class shares below add up to more than the record total — that is expected and reflects genuine claim overlap between mechanical, fluidic and imaging elements.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Annual filings rose from 30 in 2017 to a peak of 85 in 2019, then continued at elevated levels through 2021-2024, when filings grew from 43 to 84 — a 95% increase over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures (down to 7 in the partial latest year) understate real activity because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
A61B (diagnosis and surgery) and A61M (devices for body fluids) together anchor the field at 71.0% and 57.8% of the 972 records respectively. A61F implant and prosthesis claims follow at 16.2%, with sterilisation, medicinal-preparation, imaging and informatics classes each covering single-digit shares — evidence that most claim activity is still mechanical and delivery-focused rather than digital or diagnostic.
Shares are the percentage of the 972 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Chronic Total Occlusion Crossing Devices with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about chronic total occlusion crossing devices and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative claim at the crossing-device / cell-therapy boundary
Methods for intravascular engraftment in heart
The invention relates to a method of engrafting donor cells into injured myocardium. The method includes delivering donor cells to a delivery site adjacent to and downstream of a chronic total occlusion and treating the chronic total occlusion. The delivery device may be a catheter with a wireguide that may be provided by a retrograde approach via an un-occluded artery or antegrade approach through the chronic total occlusion.Filed by Cook Medical Technologies, this record ties both documented crossing routes — antegrade and retrograde — directly to a cell-delivery method, illustrating how CTO crossing mechanics get claimed as a step inside a broader therapeutic method rather than as a standalone device.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20080082109A1 | Robotic surgical system with forward-oriented field of view guide instrument navigation | 552 |
| 2 | US20190247050A1 | Integrated system for the infixion and retrieval of implants | 450 |
| 3 | US8088140B2 | Blood flow restorative and embolus removal methods | 446 |
| 4 | US20100256616A1 | Recanalizing occluded vessels using radiofrequency energy | 311 |
| 5 | US20050149173A1 | Intravascular devices and fibrosis-inducing agents | 300 |
| 6 | US20080058836A1 | Systems and methods for performing minimally invasive procedures | 241 |
| 7 | US20080312673A1 | Method and apparatus for CTO crossing | 230 |
| 8 | US20050177103A1 | Intravascular devices and fibrosis-inducing agents | 226 |
| 9 | US20080306499A1 | Recanalizing occluded vessels using controlled antegrade and retrograde tracking | 218 |
| 10 | US20050149175A1 | Intravascular devices and fibrosis-inducing agents | 195 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations inside this corpus — read them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial relevance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns stand out once volume, concentration and class distribution are read together.
The top of the ranking is dense, the rest is thin
Five assignees hold 329 of the 972 records in scope, and the top ten hold 483 — just under half the field. Below that the ranking runs to 100 companies with a long tail of few-filing entrants, meaning most white space is not blocked by a dominant single owner but by a handful of well-established portfolios.
Momentum built steadily after an early 2019 peak
Filings peaked at 85 in 2019, dipped, then climbed again from 43 in 2021 to 84 in 2024. That second run suggests renewed competitive interest in crossing mechanics rather than a one-off surge, though 2025-26 counts are still filling in under publication lag.
Mechanical and fluidic classes still carry the field
Diagnosis-and-surgery and body-fluid-device classes dominate, while imaging (G06T) and healthcare informatics (G16H) each sit under 2% of records. Digital and image-guided crossing tools remain thinly claimed relative to the physical hardware.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to chronic total occlusion crossing devices, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where momentum sits
The ranked leaders span guidewire specialists, catheter platform makers and hospital-system-adjacent filers. Recent-year momentum is uneven: some established filers show a sharp year-on-year drop while a handful of smaller entrants register their first single filings.
A single filer well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 90 records, more than double the fifth-place total of 42 — a gap wide enough to suggest a defensible core portfolio in crossing mechanics rather than incidental filing.
A crowded second tier
Between fifth place (42) and tenth place (26) the gap narrows considerably, pointing to several assignees filing at comparable volume rather than one clear runner-up.
Recent-year activity has cooled for several established filers
Multiple assignees that built sizeable portfolios show zero or single-digit filings in the latest year, with year-on-year drops as steep as -86% for one major filer — consistent with publication lag rather than a real pullback, but worth revisiting once later years complete.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Shockwave Medical Inc | 1 | -86% |
| J D FRANCO & CO LLC | 1 | — |
| CereVasc Inc | 1 | — |
| Retrovascular Inc | 0 | — |
| Asahi Intecc Co Ltd | 0 | -100% |
| Medinol Ltd | 0 | — |
| Medtronic Vascular Inc | 0 | — |
| Koninklijke Philips NV | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next questions rather than a single conclusion.
Map claim scope against the top ten filers
With 49.7% of records held by ten assignees, a freedom-to-operate check should start with their independent claims on wire stiffness transition and tip mechanics before looking at the long tail.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaTrack the 2021-2024 filing acceleration
The +95% rise over that span suggests renewed R&D investment; watching which sub-classes drove it can flag where competitors are about to surface.
Run a filing trend query in EurekaTest white space in imaging-integrated crossing
G06T and G16H classes cover under 2% of records each, well below the mechanical classes — a candidate area for a differentiated claim if the clinical case supports it.
Search white space in EurekaCommon questions about CTO crossing device patents
The patent ranking covers 100 assignees across 972 records, and it is concentrated at the top: the leading assignee holds 90 records, well ahead of fifth place at 42 and tenth place at 26. Together the top five hold 329 records, or 33.8% of the 972 in scope, and the top ten hold 483, or 49.7%. Below that the field thins into a long tail of companies with only a handful of filings each, so due diligence should weight the leaders heavily but not assume the rest of the field is empty.
Diagnosis-and-surgery devices (IPC class A61B) appear in 71.0% of the 972 records and body-fluid delivery devices (A61M) in 57.8%, making these the two anchor classes for the field. Implant and prosthesis claims (A61F) follow at 16.2%, while sterilisation, medicinal-preparation, imaging and informatics classes each cover single-digit shares. That split shows the field is still primarily about physical crossing mechanics rather than software-assisted navigation or diagnostics.
Filings grew substantially in the most recently complete filing years, rising 95% from 43 in 2021 to 84 in 2024. An earlier peak of 85 filings occurred in 2019, so growth has been non-linear rather than a single steady climb. Counts for 2025 and 2026 appear lower, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than an actual slowdown, so those recent years should not be read as a decline.
US8246601B2, assigned to Cook Medical Technologies, claims a method of delivering donor cells to injured myocardium adjacent to a chronic total occlusion, using a catheter and wireguide advanced by either an antegrade approach through the occlusion or a retrograde approach via an unoccluded artery. It is a method-of-treatment claim tied to cell engraftment, not a standalone claim on crossing-device hardware. A team building a pure crossing device — a wire, catheter or tip mechanism without the cell-delivery therapeutic step — is unlikely to be blocked by this specific claim set, but it is a useful marker of how crossing routes get folded into broader therapeutic method claims.
Imaging integration and healthcare informatics are the clearest gaps: G06T (image data processing) and G16H (healthcare informatics) each cover only 1.9% of the 972 records, far below the 71.0% and 57.8% held by the core mechanical and fluidic classes. Sub-areas like penetration-force sensing, wire-escalation decision logic and retrograde collateral navigation aids sit outside the dominant assignees' core portfolios and are worth checking for open claim space before committing to a filing strategy in those directions.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
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Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.