A catheter for delivering medical therapy to a remote site in a body, wherein:
- the catheter has a proximal end, a distal end and a longitudinal direction extending from the proximal end to the distal end;
- the catheter comprises a tubular catheter wall, which is surrounding a lumen structure of the catheter, and which is extending from the distal end proximally along the longitudinal direction, to at least 100 mm proximal from the distal end;
- the catheter wall comprises a pre-bendable wall section which is manually pre-bendable all along a pre-bending range along the longitudinal direction, wherein said pre-bending range is at least extending between 5 mm proximal from the distal end and 10 mm proximal from the distal end;
- the pre-bendable wall section comprises:
- a pre-bendable skeleton which is extending at least all along said pre-bending range, and which provides reinforcement of the catheter wall in the longitudinal direction as well in a circumferential direction around the longitudinal direction wherein the pre-bendable skeleton is an interrupted tubular reinforcement wall obtained by microfabricating a cut pattern in a fully uninterrupted tubular reinforcement wall made of a reinforcement material,
- an inner liner which is co-axially surrounded by said pre-bendable skeleton relative to a center line of the catheter wall, and
- an outer laminate which is co-axially surrounding said pre-bendable skeleton relative to the center line of the catheter wall;
- the pre-bendable skeleton comprises:
- a number N of right-handed helical struts which are extending along N right-handed helical directions, respectively, wherein N≥2,
- N left-handed helical struts which are extending along N left-handed helical directions, respectively, and
- a plurality of ring-shaped struts, which are extending along circular directions, respectively;
- each of said right-handed helical struts left-handed helical struts, and ring-shaped struts are co-axially arranged relative to the center line, wherein the N right-handed helical struts are angularly equally spaced relative to one another by 360 divided by N degrees around the center line wherein the N left-handed helical struts are angularly equally spaced relative to one another by 360 divided by N degrees around the center line, wherein the ring-shaped struts are extending mutually parallel relative to one another and mutually spaced apart in the longitudinal direction, wherein the pre-bendable skeleton comprises for each of said ring-shaped struts N connection nodes at N angularly equally spaced positions, respectively, of each ring-shaped strut concerned, and wherein at each connection node each ring-shaped strut concerned is connected to one of the N right-handed helical struts as well as to one of the N left-handed helical struts
- an overall skeleton cut-away ratio of a longitudinal section of the catheter wall in a longitudinal range along the longitudinal direction is defined as the percentage of:
- the volume of all parts, within said longitudinal range, of said reinforcement material being cut-away from said fully uninterrupted tubular reinforcement wall according to said microfabricated cut pattern,
- relative to
- the volume of all parts, within said longitudinal range, of said reinforcement material of said fully uninterrupted tubular reinforcement wall;
- and
- the overall skeleton cut-away ratio of the pre-bendable wall section in said pre-bending range is between 45% and 85%.