Patent ID: 7811277

Claim:
A steerable medical device, comprising: an elongate steerable shaft having proximal and distal ends, the shaft including at least an actuatable control member and a non-actuatable control member connected at or near the distal end and extending to the proximal end thereof; and a control unit at the proximal end of the shaft that controls the movement of the distal end of the shaft in two directions by selectively moving the actuatable control member in proximal and distal directions, whereby movement of the non-actuatable control member is initiated by the selective movement of the actuatable control member and results from a continuous tensile force applied to the non-actuatable control member, wherein the control unit includes an actuator that is connected to a proximal end of the actuatable control member and a biasing force generator having a first end that is fixedly attached to the control unit and a second end that is connected to a proximal end of the non-actuatable control member to apply the continuous tensile force to the non-actuatable control member sufficient to bend the distal end of the shaft to a first curved position when there is no force applied to the actuatable control member by the actuator.