Importance

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Abstract

A catheter is formed with a layered wall construction including an inside tube formed of a low friction polymer, a polymeric outside tube, and a metallic reinforcement braid embedded in the wall between the inside and outside tubes. The braid is composed of multiple elongate flexible strands preferably of stainless steel, wound in two opposite directions and interbraided with one another. Each strand has a rectangular transverse profile, with a profile width at least three times the profile thickness. The strands are wound with their thicknesses directed radially of the catheter wall, permitting the catheter wall to be formed at a reduced thickness while maintaining favorable structural characteristics including pushability, torqueability, flexibility and resistance to kinking. As a result, the catheter's outside diameter can be reduced without reducing its interior lumen, or alternatively a larger interior lumen can be provided in a catheter of a given size.

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First Claim