| abstract |
A highly flexible delivery device ( 2 ) for a stent graft ( 6 ) particularly for deployment into the thoracic arch of a patient. The delivery device has a distal handle ( 7 ), a pusher catheter ( 4 ) extending proximally from the handle to a proximal nose cone dilator ( 11 ), a guide wire catheter ( 3 ) extending from the proximal nose cone dilator to the pusher catheter. To give flexibility the guide wire catheter comprises a nitinol tube, the nose cone dilator has a high flexibility and the pusher catheter has a graded flexibility being more flexible at its proximal end than at its distal end. The graded flexibility can be provided by joined segments ( 4 a , 4 b and 4 c ) of different flexibility or by a inner metal tube ( 72 ) to give rigidity over some of the length. Alternatively the graded flexibility can be provided by tapering the wall thickness ( 80, 80 a ) of the pusher catheter. |