Minimally invasive vascular surgery and endovascular procedures depend very much on the clinician guiding catheters through vasculature simply by rotating the wire that has a bent tip at the end, and basically shoving it down the intended side of a bifurcation.
Computer Vision Systems Laboratories out of Boca Raton, Florida has developed a guidewire the tip of which can be remotely manipulated to bend just as much as you want, allowing more control when navigating through difficult vasculature.
Details of the patented technology from the product page:
- Based on “Buckling” theory.
- Tip bent according to the force applied to it.
- Made of super elastic NiTi (nickel titanium), PTFE (Teflon), coated coil and 0.15 mm wire.
- Wire attached to soft tip.
- Distral end of the coil is treated so that when the inner wire is pulled the tip buckles and bends accordingly.Coated coiled spring includes a wire which is attached to both ends of the spring.
- Coils near the tip are spread apart.
- One side is filled with a coating plastic material which allows the tip of the coiled springs, when pulled, to bend into the unfilled direction.
- The tip is bent by pulling back the wire.
- Spreading the spring coils apart, in the proximal end, by the handle, pushes the wire back causing it to pull the tip.
Go to 1:40 in this video to see the new guidewire in action:
