Retractable anti-buckling support systems for flexible medical devices

This work presents two novel support systems used to help mitigate flexible device buckling during insertion such as the insertion of medical device into the body. These systems are collapsible to accommodate the changing length of the flexible device as it is inserted. They use tension in wires or geometry to provide systems with lateral stiffness used to support the device. Through modeling, the performance of these systems can be predicted and they can be designed to a desired performance. This was validated in the geometry-based support system. They provide systems with small operating volumes and part counts.