With age a large percentage of the population develops atherosclerotic arterial obstructions resulting in diminished blood circulation. The disturbance to blood flow that these obstructions cause may induce blood clots which further diminish or block the blood flow. When this process occurs in the coronary arteries it is referred to as a heart attack. Presently such obstructions are circumvented by surgically grafting a bypass or they are treated by a catheter equipped with a balloon which is inserted through the arterial system, over a flexible guide-wire, into the obstruction and then inflated to expand the obstruction's lumen (angioplasty). Some of the problems with angioplasty are that it injures the arterial wall, it creates a rough lumen and in substantial number of the cases it is ineffective. Further, angioplasty does not remove the obstruction material out of the arterial system, therefore in a case of a heart attack, immediate angioplasty carries the risk of dislodging the blood clot and allowing it to move down stream creating additional blockages.
An objective of the present invention is to provide an atherectomy system having a flexible guide-wire with a diametrical envelope which rotatably and slidably supports a flexible catheter havIng a coring means at its distal end to core and extract the obstruction material, including blood clots if present, and create a smooth lumen without cracking the arterial wall. The flexible guide-wire defines voids for containing obstruction material. The design of an atherectomy catheter should lend itself to be producable in diameters down to approximately 1mm (millimeter) and a length of approximately a meter to enable it to reach and enter small and remote arteries. Preferably, the operation of the atherectomy system would resemble the operation of present catheter systems, so that existing skills of the medical staff can be utilized. These and other objectives of the invention will become apparent from the following discussion and the accompanying drawings.