Cardiac Catheter Brace for Minimally Invasive Surgery

Abstract

Cardiac disease is common and many cases require invasive surgical intervention. Most cardiac surgeries, for example, require stopping the patient’s heart. A percutaneous, beating heart, catheter-based system has been proposed as a less invasive option. Toward this goal, a mechanical device for bracing cardiac catheters against safe structures in the heart has been developed to allow more robust probing of heart tissue. The device presented here is rigid in its bracing conformation to support a catheter inside of the cardiac chambers, but is compliant enough to be delivered to the heart via the patient’s vasculature. This brace aims to provide comparable surgical dexterity in a less invasive protocol.