VINE Catheter for Endovascular Surgery

Endovascular surgery (ES) is a minimally invasive procedure used to treat diseases such as stroke, coronary artery disease, and aneurysms. Often, the vascular anatomy exhibits high tortuosity and severe angulation, which requires long procedures and significant expertise, and leads to a risk of vessel dissection. Here we introduce a soft, tip-extending robot-the VINE (Vascular Internal Navigation by Extension) catheter-that extends, or “grows,” from the tip when pressurized with fluid. It acts as an access device, pulling a standard catheter to the target site as it grows. We demonstrate how this movement via tip-extension enables the VINE catheter to easily and safely pass through tight curvatures. We also demonstrate the system's usability in a patient-specific anatomical model under fluoroscopy, even by novices. Overall the VINE catheter has potential to: (i) increase safety, given its inherent limit to stress that it can apply to vessel walls, and (ii) decrease the time and expertise required to successfully complete complex ES cases. The results serve as a foundation for an entire class of devices capable of gaining access to difficult-to-reach locations via navigation through constrained anatomy and illustrate the potential for the VINE catheter to have a significant impact on a range of procedures.