Stylet unit for implanting a medical electrode cable

Abstract

A stylet unit suitable for stiffening a hollow electrode cable, such as during the introduction and the anchoring of a medical electrode cable in the human body, includes a combination of a pair of flexible, coaxially arranged stylet elements, i.e., a tubular stylet sleeve and an internal stylet, which can be inserted into a channel in the sleeve and whose end section is pre-bent to one side. Both the stylet sleeve channel and moving inner stylet contained therein have sections or segments with non-circular cross-sections, the profile of the stylet's non-circular cross-section, in relation to the profile of the sleeve channel's non-circular cross-section, preventing the stylet from rotating in relation to the surrounding sleeve, at least within the parts of the sleeve in which both the stylet and the sleeve channel have interacting non-circular cross-sections. The stylet sleeve also has a distal end section which is pre-bent in a first lateral direction in relation to the stylet unit, and the inner stylet's distal end section is pre-bent in the diametrically opposite lateral direction. The rotation-preventing non-circular cross-sections ensure that the oppositely pre-bent stylet and sleeve portions remain in the same plane, so the forces respectively produced by each substantially cancel, thereby facilitating relative movement of the stylet in the sleeve.