Patent ID: 8518052

Claim:
A percutaneously introducible catheter device for carrying a medically useful payload positioned upon the device to a location of interest in a conduit of a patient, comprising: an intralumenal element sized and dimensioned to travel to a location of interest in a conduit of a patient; a flexible, tubular element positioned and coaxially arranged at a distal end of the intralumenal element wherein the flexible element exhibits the capability to bend substantially unidirectionally, the flexible, tubular element is substantially circular in cross section and is divided into a plurality of equally sized connected segments formed by a series of equal circumferential cuts extending about 300 degrees up to pairs of termini cuts that extend in the longitudinal direction creating equal T shaped cuts thereby forming equal isthmus like connector elements between the cuts, the combination of the circumferential cuts and the T-shaped configuration resulting from the termini cuts are configured to ensure bending in only one direction; wherein the flexible element, when encountering a non-linear path bends in the permitted direction in conformance to the non-linear path.