Method of fabricating a Zebra exchange guide wire

摘要

A method for fabricating an exchange guidewire for positioning and exchanging medical catheters within a bodily passage during a medical procedure which uses an endoscope, said method comprising: providing a core wire 45-450 cm long, having a proximal end about 0.01-0.05 inch in diameter and a distal end of a diameter no greater than that of said core wire proximal end; providing a wire/coil assembly by surrounding said core wire distal end with a flexible coil about 1-10 cm long and of a diameter between about 0.01 inch and approximately the diameter of said core wire proximal end, said coil having a proximal end and a distal tip, at least a portion of at least one of said coil and said core wire distal end being radiopaque, said coil distal tip being fixed to said core wire distal end; pre-marking a sleeve of low-friction shrink-wrappable material with an endoscopically discernible pattern of indicia marked along the entire length of said sleeve, wherein said pattern has a background colour and striping of a contrasting colour; shrink wrapping said pre-marked sleeve around said wire/coil assembly from said core wire proximal end to said coil distal tip to form a jacketed guide wire in which said sleeve is tightly fitted and conforms to said wire/coil assembly, so that the position of said exchange guidewire indicia relative to an optical lens of said endoscope may be monitored through said optical lens.