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US 2006/0135848 A1Published application
Endoscope guiding device
AssigneeZutron Medical, L.L.C.
InventorsDrake Koch, Michael Armentrout, William Hartong, Gene Armentrout
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AssigneeZutron Medical, L.L.C.
InventorsDrake Koch, Michael Armentrout, William Hartong, Gene Armentrout
Estimating the term…
An endoscope guiding device has a main wire body made of nitinol memory wire to retain its shape after bending, a handle fixed to the proximal end of the wire body and, at the distal end a rounded tip and adjacent to the distal end a reduced diameter end portion and a transition zone leading from the reduced diameter end portion to the larger diameter of the main body portion of the wire body. The rounded tip, reduced diameter portion and the transition zone are formed by centerless grinding. The main wire body may have additional reduced stiffness, that is, reduced diameter, portions at any desired point along its length in addition to the reduced diameter portion adjacent to the distal end. The guiding device is inserted into an endoscope and stiffens the endoscope sufficiently to allow the endoscope to be guided, for example, through a colon or intestine readily.
A device comprising a wire body having a proximal end and a distal end and means for reducing the stiffness of said wire body of at at least one predetermined location along said wire body.
A device comprising wire body having a proximal end and a distal end and a reduced diameter portion adjacent to said distal end a tapered transition zone between said reduced diameter portion and the remaining length of said wire body.
A device in accordance with claim one wherein said stiffening reducing means further comprises a first reduced diameter portion of said wire body adjacent to said distal end of said wire body and a second reduced diameter portion of said wire body at a location between said proximal and of said wire body and said first reduced diameter portion of said wire body.
A device comprising wire body having a proximal end and a distal end and a reduced diameter portion adjacent to said distal end and a tapered transition zone between said reduced diameter portion and the remaining length of said wire body.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.