Steerable open lumen catheter

摘要

A steerable catheter includes a handle and a catheter tube, the distal region of which may be selectively curved by the operator. A fluid transport tube extends the entire length of the catheter to enable a user to supply or extract fluids from a patient through the catheter. Within the distal tip portion of the catheter tube, two support members are affixed to opposite sides of the fluid transport tube. The distal end of the tip portion of the catheter tube is attached to at least one and preferably two pull cables. When a pull cable is tightened, the catheter's tip portion assumes a curve defined by the orientation in which the support members are affixed to the fluid transport tube. The two support members allow the tip portion of the catheter tube to assume a curvature only in a direction that is perpendicular to the plane of the two support members.