Furthermore, a closed blood circulation of the patient is rarely provided during the time of longitudinal catheter movement.

Aim: It is the aim of the present invention to overcome the above'limitations and to provide a disposable, hemostatic valve system with built-in automatic longitudinal catheter movement subassembly.

Description of the Invension: A disposable system and a method for use for hemostatic valve system with built-in automatic catheter introducing and retrieval subassembly is disclosed. The system employs multiple hemostatic valves. The system comprises two separable/connectable components (a proximal and a distal component) connected by male/femal Luer-type fittings.

The distal component has a straight lumen for receiving catheter and a guidewire therethrough. This lumen extends distally into the main lumen of the guiding catheter and/or vessel sheath, and proximally through a primary hemostatic valve with a Luer-type male connector into the proximal component. The primary valve is a hemostatic valve with obturator having a steering mechanism, to inhibit out flow of blood and to provide adequate fixation of the catheter/guidewire system when desired. it has also a sideport for fluide injection through the system into the body circulation.

The proximal part comprises a short distal common lumen at the Luer-fitting end, which diverges proximally into two channels, a guidewire channel and a main catheter channel.

During operation, both channels may be sealed by hemostatic valves with stearing mechanism (secondary valves), thereby fixing both guidwire & catheter and preventing outflow of blood and other fluids from the system and providing a closed circulatory system for simultaneous pressure monitoring. The main catheter channel is embodied into an expandable tubular telescope assembly. The proximal component of the system has also a motor chamber at the base post of the telescope assembly and, in its cavity, separated from the main catheter lumen by diaphragm and annular rings. A coaxial cable or tube is connected, at its one end, to the inner element of the telescope, and is wound on a storage drum located at the base post in the motor chamber, at the other end. A battery-operated, motor- associated worm/gear system is provided in the motor chamber to drive the drum at least in one direction. The motor drives the drum in such direction thereby stretching the coaxial cable/tube from the storage drum through the annular ring resulting into expanding the telescope, which, in turn, (for a given distance) retrieves the catheter. The motor/worm/gear-system is engineered to provide at least one regular speed resulting into constant expansion of the telescopic elements and smooth preferably slow catheter retrieval from a distal into a proximal position within the patients body. The telescope system is provided with sealing annular ring to seal the system while telescope expansion or collapse. During the telescope expansion and catheter retrieval, the guidewire remains fixed in the guidewire channel by one secondary valve unaffected by the longitudinal movement of the catheter.

In a preferred design, the storage drum contains a tension coil type spring. The motor drives the coil against its tension, thereby stretching the coil and expanding the telescope. At a desired time or at emergency, unlocking mechanism (not shown) may be used to de-couple the motor/worm/gear-system from the drum/tension coil system, resulting into resilently return of the coil spring into wound condition thereby collapsing the telescope (telescope collapsing mechanism for a consecutive, renewed catheter retrieval manouvre).

Method for installation: During catheterization, and after placement of the vessel sheath and guiding catheter, the distal component of the present invention is installed. It may serve as a conventional hemostatic valve. Once smooth catheter movement/retrieval is necessary, and provided that the guidewire is placed into the target segment of the vessel, the main catheter is first inserted into the proximal component of the proposed invention, then the guidewire, emerging at its proximal end from the distal component, is slidably inserted into the main catheter, which is then, inserted into the common channel of the distal component (through the primary hemostatic valve), then, the guidewire, emerging at its proximal end from the distal component, is inserted retrograde into through the guidewire channel of the proximal component. This will achieve a status of free manourability of the main catheter relative to the guidewire which is fixed by the secondary valve at the proximal end of the guidewire channel of the proximal component of the invention.

Fiqure descrintions: Ol/primary valve 02/secondary vlave 03/compressed foam/diaphragm 04/distal common lumen 05/guidewire lumen/channel 06/catheter lumen/channel 07/guidewire 08/catheter 09/to guiding catheter 10/connecting end/female 11/connecting end/male 12/thumb wheel 13/fix-wheel 14/motor cavity 15/diaphragm 16/coaxial cable (see 22 and 22) 17/motor 18/worm 19/worm gear 20/drum 21/drum gear 22/wound coaxial cable 23/stretched coaxial cable 24/base post/outer telescopic element 25/inner telescopic element 26/connection 27/short common distal lumen 28/sealing annular ring