Patent ID: 8172831

Claim:
A method of orienting an operative distal portion of a catheter in a patient's body lumen for performing a medical procedure, comprising a. advancing a catheter within a patient's body lumen to position the operative distal portion at a desired region in the patient's anatomy, the catheter having a tubular shaft comprising a proximal end, a distal end, and a tubular member having an incremental rotation inducing section along which a wall of the shaft has one or more strips circumferentially surrounded by portions of the wall having a different flexural modulus than the strips, such that longitudinal shaft portions are separated circumferentially by a longitudinal shaft portion of a higher or lower flexural modulus configured to provide the shaft in a curved configuration with one or more relatively low stored energy orientations and one or more higher stored energy orientations; and b. inducing controlled whipping in rotational increments by positioning the incremental rotation inducing section of the shaft in a curved section of a delivery catheter, in which the shaft section is in the curved configuration, and then rotating the proximal end of the shaft by an amount which thereby rotates a more distal location of the shaft in a rotational increment as the shaft twists through one of the high stored energy orientations to one of the low stored energy orientations, one or more times, to orient the operative distal portion of the catheter at a desired rotational orientation in the patient.