the present art is normally intended for use with human patients , as well as various veterinary applications . for simplicity , this combined human or animal use will be referred to as use in mammals , although of course such devices could also be used in appropriate non - mammal animals such as birds , reptiles , and amphibians , etc ., as appropriate . it should also be understood that although the examples of cutting unwanted plaque deposits in arteries are used throughout this disclosure , the actual invention may be used for a broader variety of applications , including removing tumors , getting biopsies , etc . in arteries , veins , and any other tubular or roughly tubular body lumen . for brevity , non proximally driven rotating cutter catheters will usually be referred to in the specification as distal driven designs . however it should be understood that wherever appropriate , alternative non - proximally driven designs such as circumference driven designs are also included in this general description . nomenclature : the handle end of the catheter is the proximal location , and the nose cone tip of the catheter is the distal location . fig1 shows an overview of the device . the device typically consists of an operator handle ( 101 ) which remains outside the body . the handle may optionally contain a battery , and a motor ( 102 ) which may provides torque for a rotary cutter , and additionally one or more optional control switches ( 103 ). the catheter also has a long narrow tube ( shaft ) ( 104 ), and the cutting atherectomy head ( 105 ). the catheter tube or shaft ( 104 ) will typically consist of a flexible tube , which is often hollow and capable of passing a guide wire , as well as optionally other materials such as drugs and contrast materials , control wires , drive shafts , sensors , sensor fibers or wires , ultrasonic signals , and the like . in some embodiments , the hollow tube may contain a shaft or hollow shaft capable of transmitting torque from a motor mounted in the handle ( 102 ) to a rotary cutter ( 106 ) mounted in the atherectomy head . this rotary cutter ( 106 ) will usually be exposed to the outside environment through a window ( 107 ). the relative positions of the rotary cutter ( 106 ) and the window ( 107 ) may optionally be controlled by the operator , and optionally the cutter may be moved relative to the window edge to open or close the window ( exposing or hiding the circular cutter ) under operator control . torque may be communicated to the rotary cutter ( 106 ) by a variety of means so long as these means to not obscure either the window or the hollow space in the tube on the side of the catheter proximal to the window . some of these torque ( rotary motion ) imparting means include indirect , off - axis , mechanical gearing or other means ( 108 ). in other embodiments , the catheter tube ( 104 ) may transmit electrical power , pressure , or chemicals capable of driving an electric motor , turbine , or chemical motor which can be mounted in the atherectomy head . the head will also usually contain a flexible or moveable nose cone region or nose region ( 109 ), which in some embodiments may be connected to the rigid body of the head by one or more hinge pins or other means . this flexible nose - cone region will be capable of being deformed by the operator from a straight to a bent position so that the nose , by pressing against one wall of a body lumen , will generate an opposite force that will tend to move the cutter ( 106 ) and window ( 107 ) against an opposite wall of a body lumen , thus enabling the cutter to cut material from selected zones of a body lumen under operator control . the catheter &# 39 ; s nose ( 109 ) usually has a tapered or conical atraumatic design intended to allow the catheter head to easily migrate through arteries . it may be composed of softer materials , and may additionally have an internal coiled spring or other means to allow the tip to bend somewhat as needed to migrate through torturous arteries and other body lumen structures . fig2 a shows a close - up of the cutting atherectomy head ( 105 ). the head will typically consist of a hollow body ( 201 ) connected to the catheter tube ( 104 ), and a tapered nose , ( 109 ) usually connected to the front ( distal portion ) of the hollow body by at least one hinge ( 202 ). the head ( 105 ) will additionally consist of at least a window ( 107 ) and rotating cutting wheel ( 106 ). the unit may also optionally have holes or ports ( 203 ), ( 204 ), ( 205 ) and appropriate inner hollow spaces for accommodating an optional guide wire . this optional guide wire helps the operator thread the catheter head through torturous arteries or other body lumens , and will be discussed in more detail in fig4 . as previously discussed , prior art atherectomy catheter designs taught proximally driven rotating cutting wheel designs . that is , the rotating wheel would ( 106 ) would under previous art have been directly coupled to a drive shaft coming from catheter tube ( 104 ) by a coupling mechanism aligned with the axis of wheel ( 106 ). the prior art proximal - drive teaching had certain advantages . it was compatible with simple and robust designs , and also minimized the cross - section ( width ) of the catheter head , which was again desirable because this helped the head migrate through torturous artery channels . the prior art proximal drive design also allowed large amounts of torque to be communicated through the drive shaft to the cutting wheel by rotation , and also allowed the relative angle of the cutting wheel to be adjusted in the catheter head by transverse motion of the rotating shaft relative to the outer catheter sheath . thus an operator could , by transverse motion of the catheter &# 39 ; s inner rotating shaft , both communicate rotation to the cutting head , and also adjust the cutting head &# 39 ; s relative orientation to catheter head windows ( opening and closing the window , for example ) or alternatively , in fixed window designs , adjust the angle of the cutting head or control to what extent the cutting head protrudes out through a catheter window . however , as previously discussed , the prior art proximal design had one big drawback . the drawback was that proximal drive rotary shaft and coupling mechanism occupied essentially all of the hollow space ( 206 ) in the inside of the catheter head ( i . e . proximal to the window ( 107 ) and cutter ( 106 ). as a result , in prior art designs , the only space that was available to store cutter shavings ( typically plaque shavings ) was in the hollow nosecone ( 109 ). unfortunately this hollow nosecone , which needed to be tapered in order to pass easily through arteries , typically had very limited internal volume and storage capacity . examples of such proximally driven cutters that store plaque shavings in the distal side in a conical nose include the previously discussed silverhawk device . as previously discussed , this prior art device , although very functional , filled up quickly with shavings . when this happened , the device had to be stopped , removed from the body , the contents of the nose removed , and then reinserted into the body and threaded to the correct region again . as previously discussed , this was undesirable because it extended the length of procedures , and was burdensome for the physician and patient . as previously discussed , by departing from the mechanically simpler proximally driven designs of prior art , and instead moving to a mechanically more complex non - proximally driven design ( such as a distally driven or circumference driven design ), the substantially larger space ( 206 ) on the proximal side of the cutter wheel ( 106 ) can now be opened up and used to store plaque shavings . although due to the higher complexity , previous designs taught away from such configurations , this more complex design is justified by the subsequent savings in catheter cleaning time and effort . whereas earlier designs , due to limited nosecone plaque storage space ( 109 ), could potentially waste hours of physician and patient times through tedious multiple removal and cleaning steps , these wasted hours can now be reduced or eliminated . the additional time can be used to do a more complete job of plaque removal as needed . given the extremely small diameter available to catheters , however , this alternative design poses many challenges . either the rotating cutting wheel needs to be coupled to its rotational power source by an indirect linkage , or alternatively the cutting wheel needs to be powered from the distal end . various types of indirect linkage are possible , and the present invention is not intended to be limited to any one means . in one embodiment of the invention , the mechanism may involve indirectly coupling the cutting wheel ( 106 ) to the torque or rotation transmitting catheter drive shaft from the catheter tube ( 104 ) by an indirect gearing means so that torque is transmitted from the drive shaft to the outer diameter of the cutting wheel from the distal direction . in one example , a rotating drive shaft from the flexible catheter tube ( 104 ) turns a first axial aligned gear ( 210 ) which , through one or more transfer gears ( 211 ), transfers power to an off - axial drive shaft ( 212 ). this off - axial drive shaft ( 212 ), typically will be connected closely to the main body of the catheter head ( 201 ) by a coupling mechanism ( not shown ) that allows the drive shaft to rotate . off - axial drive shaft ( 212 ) then transfers power to the rotating cutter ( 106 ) by a second gearing mechanism ( 213 ). many other mechanisms are also possible , and these are discussed in more detail in fig5 . a second advantage of the present invention &# 39 ; s distal side driven design over the earlier proximal driven art is that the distal driven design allows the cutter wheel ( 106 ) to be mounted on a carriage mechanism ( not shown ) so that it can also be used to open and close the window ( 107 ) as directed by the operator . this can allow the cutter wheel to be gradually closed by the operator , so as to allow simultaneously shearing off and trapping any dangling plaque that still may be attached to the side of an artery wall . as per the earlier silverhawk catheter designs , usually , the angle of the present art catheter &# 39 ; s nose ( 109 ), relative to the rest of the catheter head body ( 201 ), will be under the control of the operator so as to act to press the cutting wheel against the target plaque with the desired degree of pressure . as per the earlier silverhawk catheter design , plaque cutting can be facilitated by deflecting the cutting wheel ( 106 ) so that it protrudes slightly through the window ( 107 ). this way the exposed tip of the cutting wheel may freely shave away stiff regions of exposed plaque that might not otherwise bend to extend inside the catheter window . this deflection may be achieved by a cam mechanism ( not shown ). cam mechanisms of this type were previously taught by application ser . nos . 10 / 896 , 741 ; 10 / 288 , 559 ; 10 / 027 , 418 , the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference . the rotating cutting wheel may have sharp edges composed of tungsten carbide and the like . in other configurations , a wheel need not be used , and instead an alternate cutting device such as laser , radio frequency electrodes , ultrasonic vibrating knifes , may be used . in still other configurations , a cutting wheel can have its cutting effectiveness enhanced by coupling its rotary cutting action with laser , radio frequency electrodes , ultrasonic vibration , and the like as needed . device dimensions : typically the catheter cutting head ( 201 ) will have a diameter between about 1 to 2 . 2 millimeters . the cutting window ( 107 ) will typically have a length of about 1 . 2 to 2 . 5 millimeters . in embodiments where the cutting wheel contains a cam or other orientation control mechanism that allows the wheel to extend slightly outside the window , the wheel orientation control mechanism may allow the wheel to at least temporarily be locked into a position that allows the cutting outer edge of the wheel to extend about 0 . 025 to 0 . 64 mm outside the cutting window . this allows the operator to move the catheter head along the target region of plaque , and shave off a long thin portion of this plaque while doing so . the cutting wheel ( 106 ) will typically have a diameter of about 1 . 14 mm , and may have a straight edge , a beveled edge ( which allows removal of plaque without damaging the underlying artery lumen ), or a fluted edge depending upon the needs of the specific application . usually the cutting wheel will be mounted on a shuttle or cam mechanism to allow the operator to adjust the protrusion of the wheel from the window , or alternatively the angle of the wheel or even the location of the wheel relative to the window opening ( causing the window to be open , partially closed , or fully closed by the wheel ). the cutting wheel will typically rotate at speeds appreciably faster than 100 rotations per minute ( rpm ), preferably about 8 , 000 rotations per minute ( rpm ). the cutting edge of the blades may be optionally hardened by an appropriate coating , such as me - 92 , tungsten carbide , or other suitable materials as taught by u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 771 , 774 ; 5 , 242 , 460 ; 5 , 312 , 425 ; 5 , 431 , 673 ; and 5 , 674 , 232 , the contents of which are in herein by reference . as previously discussed , the action of blade can be facilitated by ultrasonic vibration , laser cutting , radiofrequency electrodes , and the like . if this option is elected , appropriate mechanisms ( i . e . a piezoelectric ultrasonic vibrator , laser diode or optical fiber , electrodes , etc .) may also be provided in the catheter head to drive the blade as needed . if the action of the ultrasonic , laser , or electrode cutter is sufficiently robust enough as to make it a spinning blade unnecessary , then the blade may either not be spun up , or the blade rotary mechanism may be omitted , or a non - rotating blade may be used . in many embodiments , it will be useful to allow the location and orientation of the catheter head ( 201 ), nose ( 109 ), and cutting window / wheel region ( 106 / 107 ) to be identified by x - ray fluoroscopy by constructing these regions out of suitable combinations of translucent and radio opaque materials , thus , for example , enabling the region distal to the cutting head to be distinguished from the region proximal to the cutting head . in addition to fluoroscopy localization , other modalities , such as light ( optical ) and sonic ( ultrasonic ) localization methods may also be used . here orientation may be facilitated by running a fiber optic strand through the catheter ( 104 ) ( not shown ) to an appropriate location on the catheter head , and determining the location and orientation of the head by optical means . alternatively an ultrasonic transducer or pickup may be incorporated into the catheter head . typically the flexible outer catheter tube ( 104 ) between the handle ( 101 ) and the head ( 105 ) will have a length between 50 cm and 200 cm , a diameter between 1 french ( 0 . 33 mm ) and 12 french ( 4 mm ), and will usually be between 3 french ( 1 mm ) and 9 french ( 3 mm ) in diameter . the catheter body will often be made from extruded organic polymers such as polyvinylchloride , polyurethane , polyester , polytetrafluoroethylene ( ptfe ), silicon rubber , or similar materials . the catheter body may be reinforced as needed with wires , coils , or filaments as needed to give the body additional strength and to control rigidity and pushabiliy . portions of the catheter head ( 105 ) ( distal region of the catheter ) will often be rigid or partially rigid , and can be made from materials such as metals , hard plastics , composite materials , niti steel ( optionally coated with titanium nitride , tantalum , me - 92 ® or diamonds . usually stainless steel or platinum / iridium will be used . the length of the middle portion of the catheter head may often vary between about 5 to 35 mm ( 201 ), and will usually be between about 10 to 25 mm , however alternative lengths ( longer or shorter ) may also be used . as previously discussed , the extreme distal end of the catheter head ( the nose ) ( 109 ) will usually be made to be both flexible and atraumatic so as to allow the catheter to be threaded through arteries , veins , or other body lumens with maximum ease and minimum trauma . because , in this design , the nose is no longer used to store plaque , this nose design may be optimized to accommodate the distal drive mechanism and also optimized to allow easy passage of the catheter through arteries . in some cases , the distal tip will have an inner coil construction to maximize flexibility . the distance between the rigid part of the catheter head and the distal end tip of the flexible catheter nose will typically be between 10 and 30 mm , but may vary as needs dictate . fig2 b shows the catheter head with the catheter nose cone ( 109 ) in the angled , drooped or bent configuration . typically this nose angle will be adjustable by the operator , either through a cam mechanism ( not shown ) coupled through the catheter tube ( 104 ) to the operator handle ( 101 ), or through selection of materials with appropriate rigidity / elasticity and bendability so that the operator may adjust the nose angle to an appropriate level by pulling or pushing on the catheter handle ( 101 ) and tube ( 104 ). fig2 b shows that in this configuration , nose cone ( 109 ) is bent relative to body ( 201 ). this bending is a simple way to effectively increase the cross sectional area of the catheter , and is used to force the cutting edge of the catheter against the appropriate target zone . in the confines of a narrow body lumen such as an artery , nose cone ( 109 ) is deflected until it contacts a body lumen wall ( i . e . the opposite wall of the artery ). this pushes ( or “ urges ”) cutting window ( 107 ) and cutter ( 106 ) in the opposite direction . if appropriately directed , this will push , force , or urge the cutter against the appropriate target zone ( usually a region of the artery occluded or partially occluded with plaque ). once the cutter is in proper position , with the correct amount of “ force ” or “ push ” dialed in by the angle of the nose deflection , the catheter can then be moved by the operator , shaving away unwanted plaque material . fig3 shows a diagram of the catheter head of the present invention cutting plaque ( 301 ) from an artery wall ( 302 ). in this configuration , the catheter &# 39 ; s nose ( 109 ) has been deflected at enough of an angle to contact the opposite artery wall ( 303 ). the cutting wheel ( 106 ) has been forced up against the plaque ( 301 ) and has already cut away a section of this plaque ( 304 ). a dangling region of plaque ( 305 ) is entering the hollow catheter body ( 206 ) through the window ( 107 ). here , the operator controls the speed and extent of plaque removal by using control ( 101 ) to partially retract the catheter head over the plaque by pulling on catheter tube ( 104 ), while wheel ( 106 ) is spinning and exposed to the plaque through window ( 107 ). excess plaque ( 306 ) is stored in the hollow region of the catheter head ( 206 ). the drawing is not to scale , in actuality ; the available storage space ( 206 ) will typically be substantially larger than the storage space of nosecone ( 109 ). often , it may be advantageous to use a guidewire as a type of monorail to quickly direct catheters to the correct target zones . usually such guidewires will have diameters between about 0 . 010 ″ and 0 . 032 ″, usually around 0 . 014 . when this option is desired , the catheter may be designed to be compatible with guidewire use . fig4 shows one possible way in which the catheter of the present invention may work with a guide wire . in this example , guidewire ( 401 ) is threaded up through hollow catheter tube ( 104 ). in order to allow the head &# 39 ; s cutting mechanism to operate freely and without risk of entanglement from a guide wire , it may be useful to have the guide wire exit from the main catheter tube through a first proximal exit port on the head ( 203 ), thus skipping the storage area ( 206 ) window ( 107 ) and plaque cutting ( 106 ) regions of the head . in this configuration , the guide wire would then typically reenter the nose cone ( 109 ) at opening ( 204 ), travel through the nose end of the head for a short distance , and then finally exit the head again through a third exit port or opening ( 205 ), often located near the tip of the catheter &# 39 ; s nose ( 109 ) at the extreme distal end of the catheter in some embodiments , it may also be desirable to protect the portion or portions of the guidewire that is briefly external to the catheter head ( 402 ) by a guidewire tube / lumen or a telescoping guidewire tube / lumen ( 403 ). such guidewire protection lumens may have a length between about 2 and 14 cm , or even longer as needed to accommodate longer heads with higher plaque storage volumes . this telescoping guidewire lumen protects both the guidewire and the patient &# 39 ; s artery linings from inadvertent excessive pressure while the catheter head traverses narrow arteries , and also insures that the guidewire never comes into contact with window ( 107 ) or cutter ( 106 ). in some embodiments , the telescoping guidewire lumen may serve a secondary purpose by also acting as a means to transmit torque ( 212 ) from a rotating shaft in the catheter tube ( 104 ) to the cutting wheel ( 106 ) as previously shown and discussed in fig2 a . this dual - action role ( guidewire protection / torque transmission ) helps to minimize the cross section area of the catheter head when an off - axis drive mechanism is used . in still another embodiment , lumen ( 403 )/ drive shaft ( 212 ) can consist of one or more nested hollow tubes so that an inner tube may rotate and conduct torque to drive wheel ( 106 ), yet the outer part of the lumen may be substantially stationary as to avoid tangling with a body lumen . the guide wire may still progress through the hollow inner core of this nested structure . many other combinations of drive mechanisms , catheter configurations , and sensor configurations are also possible , and some of these are shown in fig5 a and 5b . as shown in fig5 a , the rotary cutter ( 106 ) does not necessarily have to be coupled to a rotating shaft of any sort from catheter tube ( 104 ). rather , the rotary cutter may be adequately driven from the distal end of the catheter by means of a small electric motor or turbine ( 501 ). this motor or turbine may in turn derive power from catheter tube ( 104 ) and in some embodiments handle ( 101 ) as well by appropriate wires or miniature pressure or chemical tubes ( not shown ) progressing up catheter tube ( 104 ). as shown in fig5 b , in some embodiments , the catheter head ( 105 ) may additionally have various imaging or positional sensors , such as ultrasound transducer arrays , optical fibers , coherence tomography devices , infrared sensors , directional ultrasonic sensors , etc . mounted on the catheter head or nose region ( 502 ), ( 503 ). in one embodiment , the orientation of the sensor or sensors may be directed by the operator to give information as to the status of the plaque and / or artery of or other body lumen that is facing the cutting window of the catheter . this can allow the operator to determine if the catheter is in the proper orientation relative to its intended target . examples of such sensors were described in more detail in application ser . no . 10 / 421 , 980 , the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference . fig5 b also shows yet another embodiment in which the plaque storage container ( 506 ) is extended to now also include some of the hollow core of the catheter tube itself ( 104 ). with this configuration , handle ( 101 ) may be hooked up to a suction or cleaning device , as needed , to give the catheter a near infinite ability to accommodate plaque shavings . with this configuration , the catheter need never be removed from the body until the complete plaque removal task is accomplished .
the present invention is an atherectomy catheter with a rotary cutting knife that is driven from the distal or side direction . the catheter collects plaque shavings in a hollow collection chamber mounted in between the rotary cutting knife and the main catheter tubing . in contrast to prior art designs , which utilized nose mounted plaque collection chambers , the present design is able to store a substantially larger volume of removed plaque , thus increasing the length of time and amount of plaque removal that can be accomplished before the catheter must be removed from the body and cleaned . this decreases medical procedure time , allows for more complete and careful plaque removal , and reduces the burden on the patient and physician .