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US 2006/0142695 A1Published application
Long travel steerable catheter actuator
AssigneeSt. Jude Medical, Atrial Fibrillation Division, Inc.
InventorJohn Knudson
Life of this patent
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AssigneeSt. Jude Medical, Atrial Fibrillation Division, Inc.
InventorJohn Knudson
Estimating the term…
The present invention is an electrophysiology, RF ablation, or similar catheter (i.e., catheter or sheath) that includes an actuator that significantly increases the length of travel (i.e., steering travel) of the actuation wires, as compared to the length of travel provided by prior art actuators. The catheter includes a hollow flexible tubular body, a pair of actuation wires disposed in a side-by-side relationship in the body, a handle attached to a proximal end of the body, an actuator pivotally mounted to the handle, an arcuate internal gear rack disposed on the actuator, one or more pulleys pivotally mounted on the handle and coaxially coupled to a pinion gear engaged with the gear rack, and a guide block mounted within the handle. The one or more pulleys include a first channel in which the first actuation wire resides and a second channel in which the second actuation wire resides. The actuation wires pass through holes in the guide block, which aligns the wires into their respective channels. The actuation wires enter into their respective channels on opposite sides of the axis of the one or more pulleys. As the actuator is pivoted relative to the handle, the gear rack rotates the pinion gear and the one or more pulleys. This causes one of the actuation wires to be in-hauled (i.e., wound about the one or more pulleys) and the other actuation wire to be paid-out (i.e., unwound from the one or more pulleys).
A catheter comprising:
An actuating assembly for a catheter including first and second actuation wires, the assembly comprising:
An actuating assembly for a catheter including first and second actuation wires, the assembly comprising:
An actuating assembly for a catheter including first and second actuation wires, the assembly comprising:
An actuating assembly for a catheter including first and second actuation wires, the assembly comprising:
A method of displacing a distal end of a tubular body of a catheter with an actuation handle coupled to a proximal end of the body, wherein first and second actuation wires extend through the body and into the handle, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.