A catheter tube comprises a tube wall, which surrounds a tube lumen, wherein the tube wall comprises the following: a mesh; and a guide lumen around which the mesh is braided and in which a pull element extends from a proximal portion of the catheter tube to a distal portion of the catheter tube. The pull element is connected in a tension-resistant manner to the tube wall in the distal portion. The guide lumen guides the pull element at least partially around the tube lumen.

Described herein are various embodiments of flexible catheters comprising one or more flexibility regions. In one embodiment, a catheter comprises an elongate body having a proximal segment and a distal segment; a first lumen defined by the elongate body and configured for drainage of a liquid from a bodily region; and a plurality of flexibility regions on or in the distal segment of the elongate body. The plurality of flexibility regions, collectively, is configured to passively bend anteriorly. Further, at least one of the plurality of flexibility regions has a defined percent volume of material removed and a defined cut depth percentage. The features and arrangement of the flexibility regions described herein result in the catheter requiring reduced force during insertion into a bodily lumen.

A wiggle catheter (a dilator) is disclosed to facilitate advancing catheters after puncturing a blood pathway, including without limitation navigation of noncompliant hardware through a diseased lumen. The wiggle catheter includes a proximal section, a distal section, and an intermediate section disposed between the proximal section and the distal section, the intermediate section may include a plurality of angulated kinks along the long axis of the catheter, the angulated kinks having substantially the same diameter at the outer edge of the kinks, said diameter of the outer edge of the kinks being substantially same as the inner diameter of an introducer sheath whereby the wiggle catheter may be positioned inside the introducer sheath with the outer edges of the kinks in close proximity to the inner surface of the introducer sheath. The wiggle catheter may also include a sinusoidal waveform like structure or a helical or spiral structure.

A controllable stiffness endoscope overtube includes an overtube shaft including an inner sheath defining an access lumen and an outer sheath surrounding the inner sheath from proximal to distal end of inner sheath to define an annulus therebetween having a proximal portion with a vacuum connection. The sheath distal ends are longitudinally fixed to one another and sized to receive an endoscope. The outer sheath has a constant outer diameter over at least a distal portion of the annulus proximate to the distal ends of the sheaths. A vacuum device is fluidically connected to the vacuum connection and applies vacuum to the annulus. Responsive thereto, annulus pressure is lowered, the sheaths are drawn together, and the overtube shaft is stiffened over at least the distal portion to stiffen and maintain a current shape of the overtube shaft over at least the distal portion of the annulus.

A catheter is made by coextruding first and second molten polymers, wherein the second molten polymer forms a flexible inner core and the first molten polymer forms exactly two bands on opposite sides of the inner core. The inner core is braided, and a third molten polymer extruded onto the braid to form a flexible jacket that encloses the braid, the bands and the inner core. The bands are more rigid than the inner core, and they provide preferential in-plane bending.

A catheter having a proximal end portion having gaps between axially adjacent portions of an element wire where an inner layer is joined to an outer layer through the gaps; and a distal end portion where the axially adjacent portions of the element wire come into contact with each other, and a cavity is provided between the inner layer and a coil body. The catheter has excellent followability to a guide wire and is capable of efficiently transmitting a pushing force and/or rotational force from an operator to the distal end of the catheter.

The present invention pertains to medical devices. More specifically, the present application is related to an aspiration catheter for a medical clot removal system and to a clot removal system comprising such an aspiration catheter. An aspiration catheter for a clot removal system has a distal section and a proximal section, wherein, in the distal section, a ratio of an outer diameter (D.sub.d) and an open lumen inner diameter (ID) is in a range between 1.05 and 1.09, and wherein a volume of the aspiration catheter is in a range between 0.2 cubic inches and 0.4 cubic inches.

A catheter includes a hollow shaft, a multi-thread coil body covering the hollow shaft, and a cover member covering the multi-thread coil body. The multi-thread coil body includes a ring-shaped or substantially hollow cylindrical joint part in which distal ends of a plurality of element wires are joined in a circumferential direction, a coil main body located at a proximal side of the joint part in an axial direction, in which an outer shape of a cross section of each of the plurality of element wires is circular, and a transition part located between the joint part and the coil main body, in which a width of at least one of the plurality of element wires widens toward a distal end of the element wire.

A rotation transmission structure includes a coil body formed by winding wires, and a reinforcing body for connecting adjacent wires of the coil body. When the wires of the coil body are connected to one another by the reinforcing body, the rigidity of a predetermined region of the rotation transmission structure in the longitudinal direction is lower than the rigidity of another region of the rotation transmission structure.

The guide catheter extension system for various intravascular procedures, including the reverse CART procedure, the thrombus removal, etc., has an enhanced ”capturing” capability. It is configured with a plastically expandable scaffold member forming an expandable “funnel-like” distal opening, and, once it has been advanced into the subintimal space, provides an enhanced capability of catching the retrograde wire or a thrombus, as required by the procedure. A balloon delivered to the target location in the blood vessel, by being inflated, opens the scaffold member to enhance the delivery of the retrograde wire or the thrombus into the guide catheter extension. When the guide catheter extension is no longer needed, the flared guide extension can be easily compressed and collapsed as it is drawn in the guiding catheter. For benefits of the thrombus removal, the balloon may be formed from a material loaded with a radiopaque material and prefabricated with micro pores. A thrombolytic agent can be delivered to the thrombus before the thrombus is conveniently captured in the expanded distal opening of the scaffold member and removed from the blood vessel by aspiration. The outer or inner catheter may be configured with a distal curved portion to enhance a rotational capability for displacement between the right and left pulmonary arteries.