1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wire knot delivery device, and more particularly, to a wire knot delivery device for delivering and maintaining a knot of a medical wire in a medical procedure.
2. Background of the Invention
Medical wires, which are used in medical procedures, may be formed of metals or fiber materials such as nylon. Furthermore, medical wires may be formed of any materials, provided that the materials are not harmful to the human body.
Medical wires can be variously used in medical procedures. For example, the tension of a medical wire may be used by forming a knot. Such a method is disclosed in detail in patent document 1 Patent document 1 discloses mitral cerclage coronary sinus annuloplasty (MVA) in which circular pressure is applied around the mitral annulus (MA).
Also, patent document 1 discloses a technology of forming a knot of a cerclage suture as a medical wire. Referring to patent document 1, a wire knot delivery mechanism is used to form a knot of a cerclage suture. FIGS. 1a to 1f are views illustrating a use of a wire knot delivery mechanism in the conventional art.
Referring to FIG. 1a, two strands of the cerclage suture 10 extending out of a human body are inserted into a through hole formed at an end of a wire knot delivery mechanism 30 to form a knot, and then, an end of the cerclage suture 10 is passed through an inner cavity of the wire knot delivery mechanism 30. After that, the wire knot delivery mechanism 30 is pushed to the heart of the human body such that the end of the wire knot delivery mechanism 30 is disposed on an upper end part of a tissue protection tube 20. As such, the wire knot delivery mechanism 30 delivers the knot while keeping the knot from tightening. After that, tension is applied to the cerclage suture 10 and is appropriately adjusted until mitral regurgitation stops. That is, referring to FIG. 1b, the strands of the cerclage suture 10 are appropriately pulled or released outside of the human body to adjust the tension of the cerclage suture 10 until the mitral regurgitation stops. When the tension reaches an appropriate value, an opening and closing part 32 of the wire knot delivery mechanism 30 is opened. To this end, the opening and closing part 32 may be cut using a cutter, but a method of opening the opening and closing part 32 is not limited thereto. After that, referring to FIG. 1d, when the cerclage suture 10 is pulled outside of the human body, the knot, kept from tightening by the opening and closing part 32, tightens to fix the tension of the cerclage suture 10. After that, referring to FIG. 1e, the cerclage suture 10 is cut at a predetermined distance from the knot by using a cutter, and the remainder of the cerclage suture 10 and the wire knot delivery mechanism 30 are taken out of the human body. Accordingly, referring to FIG. 1f, the end of the cerclage suture 10 is fixed as a knot 12.
However, such a conventional method of delivering a knot of a medical wire, a method of cutting the medical wire, and a method of forming the knot have the following limitations.
Conventional wire knot delivery mechanisms cannot instantly tighten a knot of a medical wire even after adjustment of tension of the medical wire is completed since an opening and closing part is not removed. In addition, when the opening and closing part is cut to tighten the knot, the adjustment of the tension may be changed. Accordingly, it may be difficult to accurately adjust the tension of the medical wire.
In addition, conventional wire knot delivery mechanisms have a structure in which while a knot of a medical wire is delivered, friction or resistance increases between the knot and an opening and closing part. Thus, it is difficult to efficiently deliver the knot.
In addition, since a loop size of the knot during the delivery of the knot depends on only the size of the opening and closing part, it is difficult to change the loop size according to the size of a blood vessel during the delivery of the knot.
In addition, after the delivery of the knot is completed, the knot cannot be completed without cutting the opening and closing part. Since the opening and closing part is finally moved to a location close to the heart of a human body in the blood vessel, a cutting tool should be also moved to the location close to the heart in the blood vessel to cut the opening and closing part. This may impose a heavy burden on a cutting process.