Steerable catheter with external guidewire as catheter tip deflector

• US 6,126,649 A
• Filed: 06/10/1999
• Issued: 10/03/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Medtronic Vascular, Inc. (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: TransVascular, Inc. (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Schwartz, Robert S., Holmes, David R., VanTassel, Robert A.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, ANH TUAN TUONG
• Application Number:
  US09/329,386
• Time in Patent Office: 481 Days
• Field of Search: 604/95.01, 604/95.04, 604/179, 604/523, 604/525, 604/528, 604/530
• US Class Current: 604/528
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/22041 outside the catheter
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/22045 fixed to the catheter; guiding tip
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2025/0177 having external means for receiving guide wires, wires or stiffening members, e.g. loops, clamps or lateral tubes
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 25/0138 having flexible regions as a result of weakened outer material, e.g. slots, slits, cuts, joints or coils
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 25/0147 with movable mechanical means, e.g. pull wires

Abstract

A steerable catheter in which a guidewire can serve a dual purpose of deflecting a bendable element at a distal end of the steerable catheter and as a guidewire to facilitate the placement of a working catheter within the vascular system. The guidewire is adapted to be slidingly received within routing eyelets or the like where one of such eyelets is disposed at a distal end of the bendable element and another near the proximal end thereof. The guidewire can be readily advanced in the distal direction relative to the steerable catheter, but tensioning of the guidewire at its proximal end serves to deflect and bend the bendable element.

Claims

1. A steerable catheter, comprising:

(a) an elongated, flexible, tubular body member having a proximal end, a distal end and a lumen extending therebetween;

(b) a tubular bendable element of a predetermined length coaxially disposed on the tubular body member;

(c) a guidewire having a proximal end and a bulbus distal end; and

(d) routing means on the tubular body member at predetermined longitudinally spaced locations therealong for slidingly receiving the guidewire therein, with one said routing means at a distal end of the bendable element and another routing means disposed near a proximal end of the bendable element, the routing means being laterally offset from a longitudinal axis of the tubular body member such that tensioning of the guidewire at the proximal end thereof induces a bend in the bendable element.

2. The steerable catheter as in claim 1 wherein said routing means comprise apertured tabs disposed external to the lumen of the tubular body member.

3. The steerable catheter as in claim 1 wherein one of said routing means comprises a bore formed through a wall of the tubular body member into the lumen thereof near said proximal end of the bendable element.

4. The steerable catheter as in claim 3 wherein the guidewire extends through the lumen of the tubular body member from the proximal end thereof and out through said bore.

5. The steerable catheter as in claim 2 wherein the bulbus distal end of the guidewire is of a radial dimension greater than a diameter of the apertures of said tabs.

6. The steerable catheter as in claim 5 wherein the bulbous distal end of the guidewire is a soft, atraumatic tip member.

7. The steerable catheter as in claim 2 wherein the apertured tabs comprise a soft elastomeric material.