Steerable guidewire with soft adjustable tip

Claim 1

A steerable guidewire comprising: an elongate solid walled tubular main wire having a proximal and a distal end; an elongate helical coil having proximal and distal ends and being connected at its proximal end to the distal end of the main wire and extending distally of the main wire; a distal core wire having proximal and distal ends and being connected to and extending distally from the distal end of the main wire, the core wire extending through the lumen of the coil and having a distal tip connected to the distal tip of the coil at a rounded end cap; means defining a pull wire opening adjacent to the distal end of the main wire and adjacent the proximal end of the distal core wire; a pull wire having a proximal end and a distal end, the distal end of the pull wire terminating short of the distal tip of the helical coil; a longitudinally yieldable spring internal of the helical coil connecting the distal end of the pull wire with the distal end of the helical coil; the pull wire extending proximally between the core wire and the coil and through the opening into the lumen of the main wire, the pull wire extending proximally through the lumen of the main wire to the proximal end of the main wire; whereby the proximal end of the pull wire may be pulled to apply tension to the pull wire thereby to tension the internal spring and to draw at least a portion of the distal end of the helical coil into a curved configuration.