PHOTON UPCONVERTING IMPLANTABLE MEDICAL DEVICES

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Implantable medical devices, such as catheters and stents, which contain light upconverting materials as part of their construction, are disclosed. Such upconverting materials, often rare earth compounds, can convert longer wavelength light, such as light from the 600-800 nm region, which penetrates the body tissue easily, but which is too low energy to induce many chemical reactions, into shorter wavelength light, such as light above 500 nm, which penetrates only a small distance through the body tissues, but which contains enough energy to induce a greater variety of chemical reactions, including conversion of drugs such as psorlens from an inactive to an active form, activation of cytotoxic or antimicrobial photocatalysts such as TiO2, and conversion of non-target molecules to target molecules for other drug and biotherapeutic systems. Such implantable devices can potentially exert their therapeutic effects for years after administration.