Siemens Healthcare Gmbh

Lukas Lindenroth

Young-Ho Kim

Erin Girard

Rodolfo Finocchi

For rotation compensation in a catheter, a rotation sensor senses rotation of the handle or catheter. Motors are controlled to change the bend in response to sensed rotation. As the tip rotates due to handle rotation, the motors change the bend to maintain the bend and tip position relative to the patient. This steering in the patient reference frame may be more intuitive, easier to learn, and allow rotation to change an imaging field of view without moving the bending planes.

Controlled bending for catheters

For active control of steering, one or more motors integrated into an intra-cardiac echocardiography catheter handle control the bending. Multiple sets of motors may be used to control steering wires anchored at different segments along the catheter, allowing steering with multiple bends in complex patterns controlled by a controller. The handle may be releasably separated into a reusable motor part and a disposable steering wire part so that the more complex and expensive motor part is not discarded and so that the number of motors may be matched to the number of steering wires.

Growing community of inventors

London, United Kingdom

Lukas Lindenroth