Magnetic wire for retrieval and elimination of calculus from the urinary tract

Abstract

A medical device for retrieval of kidney stone fragments from a urinary tract is provided. The medical device has a plurality of magnets arranged within a flexible sheath forming a flexible wire. The magnets are magnetically attached end-to-end and arranged with their magnetic polarities alternating in direction. The magnetization direction of each of the magnets is orthogonal to the length axis of the flexible wire. A removable inner stylet is situated within the flexible sheath allowing for modifiable flexibility of the wire. The medical device is dimensioned to be introduced into the urinary tract and standard endoscopic devices. The medical device is further dimensioned to allow for the wire with magnetically attached stone fragments to be retrieved from the urinary tract. The magnetic field along the length axis is sufficient to attract to the surface of the flexible wire superparamagnetic nanoparticles which have bound themselves to kidney stone fragments.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.