GUIDE WIRE FOR MINIMALLY INVASIVE OPERATIONS AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING A GUIDE WIRE

Abstract

A guide wire for minimally invasive operations with a distal wire end piece (3, II) connected to a wire main piece (2), wherein the guide wire (I, 10) has, at least in the distal wire end piece (3, II), an inner shaft (4, 14) and at least one protective layer enclosing the inner shaft (4, 14), the inner shaft (4, 14) comprises a first fibre composite material and, at least in the distal wire end piece (3, II), the inner shaft (4, 14) has a plurality of weakened points (8, 18), which are created by mechanical interventions, is characterised in that the weakened points (8, 18) are created by buckling load, bending load and/or breaking load. Correspondingly, for a method for producing a guide wire of this kind it is proposed that the weakened points (8, 18) are created by buckling load, bending load and/or breaking load.

Claims

1. A guidewire device for minimally invasive interventions, the guidewire device comprising: a wire main piece; and a distal wire endpiece adjoining the wire main piece, wherein: the distal wire endpiece includes, an inner shaft and at least one protective layer enveloping the inner shaft, the inner shaft includes: a first fiber composite material, a plurality of weakened sites that are generated by mechanical interventions, a core, a plurality of envelop layers surrounding the core, the core includes the first fiber composite material, the first fiber composite material includes glass fibers, at least one of the plurality of envelope layers includes a second fiber composite material, wherein the second fiber composite material includes aramid fibers being enveloped by a plastic matrix material, and the weakened sites are generated by at least one of: buckling loads, bending loads, or breaking loads.

2. The guidewire device of claim 1, wherein at least one subset of the aramid fibers of the second fiber composite material is guided helically about a circumference of the core.

3. The guidewire device of claim 1, wherein the protective layer or, in a case of more than one protective layers, an outermost protective layer is a protective jacket including PTFE.

4. The guidewire device of claim 1, wherein at least one marking element is suitable for marking in an imaging method.

5. The guidewire device of claim 4, wherein the at least one marking element includes at least one magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) marking element suitable for marking in magnetic resonance tomography.

6. The guidewire device of claim 1, wherein a proximal wire endpiece adjoins an end of the wire main piece opposite the distal wire endpiece.

7. The guidewire device of claim 6, further comprising: an inner shaft provided in the proximal wire endpiece, the inner shaft having a first fiber composite material, and at least one protective layer enveloping the inner shaft.

8. The guidewire device of claim 7, wherein the inner shaft includes a plurality of weakened sites that are generated by mechanical interventions.

9. The guidewire device of claim 6, wherein at least one marking element is arranged in a proximal wire endpiece.

10. The guidewire device of claim 1, wherein a bent shape is conferred on at least of: the distal wire endpiece or to a proximal wire endpiece.

11. The guidewire device of claim 10, wherein the bent shape has a bending angle (α) of at least 45° and at most 90°.

12. A method for producing a guidewire for minimally invasive interventions, comprising: adjoining a distal wire endpiece to a wire main piece, wherein the distal wire endpiece includes an inner shaft having a first fiber composite material; and providing, in the inner shaft of the distal wire endpiece, a plurality of weakened sites generated by mechanical interventions, wherein the mechanical interventions include at least one of: buckling loads, bending loads, or breaking loads.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising adjoining on the guidewire a proximal wire endpiece which adjoins an end of the wire main piece opposite the distal wire endpiece.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising arranging: an inner shaft having a first fiber composite material in the proximal wire endpiece, and at least one protective layer enveloping the inner shaft.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein in the inner shaft in the proximal wire endpiece, a plurality of weakened sites are generated by mechanical interventions.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein for the mechanical interventions, the inner shaft is placed over at least one mechanical edge and is subjected to a force acting transversely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the unweakened wire endpiece.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the mechanical interventions are carried out in at least two different rotation angle positions of the inner shaft relative to a rotation about the longitudinal axis of the inner shaft.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein to generate the inner shaft, a core made of a first fiber composite material is surrounded by at least one envelope layer made of a second fiber composite material, wherein fibers of the second fiber composite material are guided around the core with oppositely directed helical orientations.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising applying at least one marking element serving for marking purposes in an imaging method to the outer circumference of the inner shaft.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising applying the at least one marking element to at least one of: the distal wire endpiece or to the proximal wire endpiece.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the inner shaft is surrounded by at least one protective layer after the mechanical intervention.

22. The method of claim 12, wherein a bent shape is conferred on at least one of: the distal wire endpiece or to the proximal wire endpiece.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the bent shape has a bending angle (α) of at least 45° and at most 90°.

24. A guidewire device for minimally invasive interventions, the guidewire device comprising: a wire main piece; and a distal wire endpiece adjoining the wire main piece, wherein: the distal wire endpiece includes an inner shaft and at least one protective layer enveloping the inner shaft, the inner shaft includes: a first fiber composite material, a plurality of weakened sites that are generated by mechanical interventions, a core, and an envelope layer surrounding the core, the core includes the first fiber composite material, the first fiber composite material includes glass fibers, the envelope layer includes a second fiber composite material, wherein the second fiber composite material includes aramid fibers being enveloped by a plastic matrix material, and the weakened sites are generated by at least one of: buckling loads, bending loads or breaking loads.

25. The guidewire device of claim 2, wherein the at least one subset of the aramid fibers of the second fiber composite material is guided in two oppositely directed, different helical orientations about the circumference of the core.

26. The guidewire device of claim 4, wherein the at least one of the marking elements is applied to an outer circumference of the inner shaft.

27. The guidewire device of claim 5, wherein the at least one MRT marking element includes an active marking element.

28. The guidewire device of claim 8, wherein the mechanical interventions include at least one of: buckling loads, bending loads, or breaking loads.

29. The method of claim 15, wherein the mechanical interventions include at least one of: buckling loads, bending loads, or breaking loads.

30. The method of claim 16, wherein the force is applied along the inner shaft at intervals of 1 mm to 3 mm.

31. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least two different rotation angle positions of the inner shaft relative to a rotation about the longitudinal axis of the inner deviate from each other by 90°+/−10°.

32. The method of claim 18, wherein the first fiber composite material is different from the second fiber composite material.

33. The method of claim 21, wherein a protective jacket including PTFE, is shrink-fitted as the protective layer or, in a case of more than one protective layer, as an outermost protective layer

Description

[0039] Preferred embodiments of the guidewire according to the invention and of the production method according to the invention are set out below with reference to figures.

[0040] In the schematic figures:

[0041] FIG. 1 shows the front region of a first guidewire with a distal wire endpiece,

[0042] FIG. 2 shows a second guidewire with a distal and a proximal wire endpiece, and

[0043] FIG. 3 shows an enlarged detail from the proximal wire endpiece.

[0044] FIG. 1 shows the front region of a guidewire 1 with a wire main piece 2 and with a distal wire endpiece 3 seamlessly adjoining the latter. The first guidewire 1 has an inner shaft 4, which consists of a core 5 and of an envelope layer 6 surrounding the core 5. A protective jacket 7, preferably of PTFE, is pulled over the inner shaft 4 and shrink-fitted. To make matters clearer, the size ratios are not true to scale in the figure. The length of the wire endpiece 3 is in fact of the order of preferably 30 mm to 60 mm, and the diameter of the first guidewire 1 is of the order of less than 1 mm.

[0045] The core 5 consists of a fiber composite material which has glass fibers and, as plastic matrix, an epoxy resin. The glass fibers (not shown in the figure) are at least predominantly oriented in the longitudinal direction of the first guidewire 1. To produce the core, the glass fibers, which are preferably continuous over the length of the first guidewire 1, are provided with the plastic matrix in a pultrusion method.

[0046] The envelope layer 6 likewise consists of a fiber composite material, wherein fibers of an aramid are preferably used here. The fibers (not shown) are preferably wound helically in two different orientations about the core 5. Thereafter, the plastic matrix for the envelope layer 6 is applied, likewise in a pultrusion method. Preferably, the plastic matrix is likewise epoxy resin. The two pultrusion methods can be carried out during a common drawing process.

[0047] After the inner shaft 4 has been finished, it is provided in the distal wire endpiece 3, by mechanical intervention, with a multiplicity of weakened sites 8, of which only the rear three weakened sites 8, as seen from the distal end 9, are provided with the reference number in the figure. The weakened sites 8 serve to reduce the flexural stiffness of the guidewire 1 in the wire endpiece 3. The weakened sites 8 thus replace the much more complicated reduction of the diameter of the inner shaft 4, as known from the prior art.

[0048] In order to generate the weakened sites 8, the inner shaft 4 can be placed with its distal end over a mechanical edge (not shown here). On a part of the inner shaft 4 protruding beyond the mechanical edge, a force with a component perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the inner shaft 4 is applied to the inner shaft 4. With sufficient force, this causes a movement of the inner shaft 4 with a bending, buckling and/or breaking load, which leads to formation of cracks in the inner shaft 4. Since in particular the glass fibers in the core 5 are largely not broken during said movement, the inner shaft 4 remains in one piece, and complete breaking-off of part of the inner shaft 4 can be avoided. The bending, buckling and/or breaking load leads instead to a partial tearing open of the plastic matrix, as a result of which the flexural stiffness of the inner shaft 4 is reduced considerably at the weakened site 8 that is generated.

[0049] The mechanical weakening is then repeated many times, for example by means of the inner shaft 4 being pushed farther out over the mechanical edge until the acting force generates the next weakened site 8. In a distal wire endpiece 3 with a length of 40 mm, for example, twenty weakened sites 8 are preferably formed at an interval of approximately 2 mm. However, the distal wire endpiece 3 can also have a length of 30 mm to 60 mm, for example, in which case the intervals between the weakened sites preferably measure 1 to 3 mm. The entire process can then be repeated with a modified rotation angle position of the inner shaft 4. For example, after the first pass for introducing a multiplicity of weakened sites 8, the inner shaft 4 is rotated about the longitudinal axis by approximately 90° relative to the direction of the acting force and is treated correspondingly in a second pass.

[0050] The acting force can be generated, for example, by means of the weight force of a mass (not shown here) fixed at the distal end of the inner shaft 4.

[0051] After the inner shaft 4 has been provided with the desired number of weakened sites 8, the protective jacket 7 is pulled over the inner shaft 4. Thereafter, at least the distal wire endpiece 3 is optionally brought to a desired shape and is fixed in a shape-fixing device (not shown here). Thereafter, the protective jacket 7 is shrink-fitted onto the inner structure 4 at a suitable temperature. After cooling, the shape of the wire endpiece 3 remains on account of the stabilizing effect of the shrink-fitted protective jacket 7, even after removal from the shape-fixing device. The conferred shape, at least in a subportion, is preferably an arc shape.

[0052] FIG. 2 shows a second guidewire 10 with a distal wire endpiece and a proximal wire endpiece 12. A wire main piece is not shown here and falls in the gap 13 in the depiction of the second guidewire 10. Apart from weakened sites explained below, the wire endpieces 11 and 12 have substantially a matching structure. A region of the proximal wire endpiece 12 marked “Z” in FIG. 2 is shown enlarged in FIG. 3. A core 15 of the second guidewire 10, an envelope layer 16 surrounding the core 15, and a protective layer in the form of a protective jacket 7 can be seen in the enlargement. Core 15 and envelope layer 16 together form the inner shaft 14. Thus, the second guidewire 10 corresponds in structure to the wire main piece 2 and the distal wire endpiece 3 of the first guidewire 1 according to FIG. 1.

[0053] The distal wire endpiece 11 has, in the inner shaft 14, a multiplicity of weakened sites 18, which are symbolized by lines perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the second guidewire 10, and of which only four are labeled with reference signs. The weakened sites 18 are distributed over the entire length of the distal wire endpiece 11 shown and result in an increased flexibility of the distal wire endpiece 11. The weakened sites can be produced in the same way as already described with reference to FIG. 1 or in another suitable way.

[0054] By contrast, in the illustrative embodiment in FIG. 2, the proximal wire endpiece 12 is formed without weakened sites. A user can decide whether to use the distal wire endpiece 11 or the proximal wire endpiece 12 as the tip of the second guidewire for guiding another instrument, e.g. a catheter (not shown here).

[0055] The distal wire endpiece 11 is bent in a subportion 19, wherein the bending angle α measures approximately 63°. The bending can be regular with a constant bending radius R or irregular with a changing bending radius R. The production of the bend and/or the application of the protective jacket 17 can also take place in the same way as already described with reference to FIG. 1 or in another suitable way.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

[0056] 1 first guidewire

[0057] 2 wire main piece

[0058] 3 wire endpiece

[0059] 4 inner shaft

[0060] 5 core

[0061] 6 envelope layer

[0062] 7 protective jacket

[0063] 8 weakened site

[0064] 9 distal end

[0065] 10 second guidewire

[0066] 11 distal wire endpiece

[0067] 12 proximal wire endpiece

[0068] 13 gap

[0069] 14 inner shaft

[0070] 15 core

[0071] 16 envelope layer

[0072] 17 protective jacket

[0073] 18 weakened sites

[0074] 19 subportion

[0075] α bending angle

[0076] R bending radius