A rotating grater-like cutting tool to remove calcified atheroma in coronary artery without damaging soft vessel walls

Abstract

       The rotating cutting tool on the tip of a catheter is required to to remove hard cemented deposits in heart blood vessals without damaging soft vessel walls. The requirements were evaluated through a cutting experiment using a boiled egg; that is, the tool can cut the hard shell, not the soft white. The authors introduce a rotating "grater-like" cutting tool, preventing tool-tips from dropping out, while conventional tool is in danger of dropping diamond particles which block blood flow eventually. The anodized aluminium tool of 2 mm in diameter with less than 20 microns height tool-tip, rotated at 200,000 rpm in the water, could realize the cutting requirements without any tool wear. The coolant film around the tool-tip was hydrodynamically pressured, and made the soft wookpiece deform elastically, protecting it from cutting off. [This abstract is not included in the PDF]