Boston Scientific Corporation

Meditech, Ltd.

Hugh A Tripp

James S Bates

Fernando A De Toledo

A surgical extractor for removing calculi, such as kidney stones and gall stones, from the body. The extractor includes a handle at an proximal end of the extractor with a slider for operation by a physician. At the distal end the extractor includes a plurality of pairs of wires with portions of each pair being formed along the turn of a helix. When a retaining sheath is retracted, the wires, formed of a shape memory material such as stainless steel, expand such that each pair of wires closely assumes a path along a helical turn with individual wires remaining closely adjacent. This use of plural wires for each strand multiples the number of contacts with entrapped calculi and can be provided without any deleterious effect on the reliability or size of the extractor.

Surgical extractor with closely angularly spaced individual filaments

A medical guidewire has an elongated body that has a degree of flexibility and a distal tip region of relatively greater flexibility. The guidewire consists of a core having a body of first diameter, a distal portion of a relatively smaller diameter, and a generally flat distal end. The end is disposed in the tip region and is spaced proximally from a round tip element that defines the distal end of the guidewire. A first coil is joined to the core body and extends along the core to a termination point in the distal tip region, proximal of the end of the core. A relatively more flexible second coil is joined at its proximal end to the first coil and joined at its distal end to the round tip element. A safety wire is secured to the core and has a generally flat distal end within the second coil, joined to the round tip. A transition wire is secured to the core and has a generally flat distal end that terminates within the second coil intermediate of the distal ends of the core and safety wire. In this or other medical guidewires, the first and second coils are joined in sequence, the second coil overlapping the first coil, both having essentially the same outer diameter. The above resulting in a joint of substantially uninterrupted flexibility.

Growing community of inventors

Foxboro, MA, United States of America

Hugh A Tripp