Study on Guide System of an Intravascular Catheter

Abstract

In the field of medical science, employment of intravascular neurosurgery with a (micro)catheter is steadily increasing. However it is usually difficult to guide a catheter safely inside blood vessels. In this study, we proposed and designed a new guiding system based on the fluid force of blood flow. The system consists of a cylindrical streamer (1 mm in diameter and l.5 mm in length), two supporting legs and one wire. Movement of the streamer can be controlled by adjusting the length of the wire. We studied the behavior of the cylindrical streamer by numerical analysis of fluid force, and investigated the characteristics of a model system by experiment. We found that the system can be used to control streamer movement including its forward or backward movement and its selection of its way in three types of both branched and bifurcated vessels.