Enhancing microcatheter agility with active tip control

Interventional radiologists consistently state that one of the biggest problems with existing microcatheters is the lack of active tip control, which frequently leads to increased procedure time, cost and risk to patient outcomes.

During a procedure, the interventionalist uses a guidewire in concert with the microcatheter to select the desired vessels. This process can be hampered by a variety of factors such as vessel tortuosity, acute branch-point angles, presence of atherosclerotic plaque, and user skill level. While complex cases can often be anticipated from pre-procedural imaging, other factors, such as microvessel wall compliance or additional variant anatomy, are often encountered during the procedure.

Difficulties in navigation can result in added procedure time, unpredictable scheduling, increased radiation exposure, and, in time-critical processes such as a ruptured pseudoaneurysm, poorer clinical outcomes. These problems are compounded when there are multiple targets that require repositioning into different vessels.

Active deflection, in which the catheter tip angle can be adjusted in situ by the user, would allow the interventionalist to deflect a guidewire in a preferred direction. This would obviate the need to exchange for a passive microcatheter or guidewire of a different shape or stiffness, and would reduce reliance on specialized guide catheters.

The Agile Devices Angler™ steerable and deflectable microcatheter gives clinicians all of the benefits of a standard microcatheter plus the added ability to actively deflect and/or steer the distal tip intraoperatively, with or without a guide wire in place.  This is designed to reduce or eliminate device exchanges and thus reduce procedure time, cost, difficulty, and risk.