Patent 6991630 was granted and assigned to Cryocor on January, 2006 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method of cooling an operative surface of a cryoablation device, comprises the steps of providing a primary refrigerant under pressure and pre-cooling the primary refrigerant to a temperature below a critical temperature thereof using a non-charging refrigeration system to liquify the refrigerant in combination with the steps of expanding the pre-cooled primary refrigerant in proximity to an operative surface of the cryoablation device and removing the expanded primary refrigerant from the proximity of the operative surface.