Douglas Sutton,Tim Williams,Keith Phillip Laby,Mark D. Barrish
申请号：
US16741930
公开号：
US20200147346A1
申请日:
2020.01.14
申请国别(地区):
US
年份:
2020
代理人:
摘要：
Devices, systems, and methods for articulating elongate flexible structures such as catheters optionally include an array of fluid-expandable bodies such as balloons. A user may alter a bend characteristic of the flexible structure by manually moving a handle of a pump. The pump may induce a flow of inflation fluid into a subset of the expandable bodies, and the resulting expansion can change a bend characteristic of the flexible structure. The pump may comprise a threaded syringe pump, one or more balloon that is manually compressed by movement of the handle (so that the balloon acts as a displacement pump), a multi-axis displacement pump (optionally with laterally offset piston-cylinder assemblies coupled to the handle to induce laterally offset bending of the flexible structure), or the like, providing easily-modulated articulation with a low-cost, light-weight, and/or at least partially disposable user interface.
