Patent ID: 8784356

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: an acoustic driver configured to produce acoustic vibration in a torsional orientation; a flexible clearing member acoustically coupled to said driver and configured to be excited in accordance with said acoustic vibration, said clearing member comprising a wire having a longitudinal axis of torsional rotation and a treating portion of an overall axial length thereof that is configured to effect a beneficial erosive clearing action within a bodily lumen, wherein at least said treating portion of said wire has one or more topographical features, said wire vibrating when excited by said torsional acoustic vibration configured to effect said beneficial clearing action in the bodily lumen, wherein said at least one or more topographical features includes one of (1) an additive surface feature selected from the group comprising an electro-formed material, an electro-deposited material, an electro-plated material, an adhered material, a bonded material, and a texturing or roughening of the surface during wire formation wherein the wire formation comprises one of a drawing and an extrusion formed onto or from a surface of the wire, and (2) a subtractive feature selected from the group comprising an etched feature including a laser-etched machined feature, an electro-discharge machined feature, and a texturing or roughening of the surface during wire formation into or from a surface of the wire.