Abstract: A housing has a spiral passageway for a catheter that is manually extracted from the housing by means of a wheel having a textured circumferential surface and mounted on a shaft that extends through a non-circular bearing defined in an outer portion of the housing. An inner portion of the wheel extends into the spiral passageway adjacent the wire catheter and an outer portion of the wheel outwardly from the housing whereby the upper surface of the knob can be manipulated in one direction and the wire catheter below the knob will be advanced in the opposite direction. The non-circular bearing has a generally circular outer portion in which the textured surface of the knob is only intermittently in contact with the catheter whereby the wire catheter may be advanced, and a generally linear inner portion sloping inwardly towards the catheter.

Abstract: A housing has a spiral passageway which contains a catheter which may be manually extracted from the housing by means of a wheel having a polygonal or otherwise textured circumferential surface and mounted on a shaft which extends through a non-circular bearing defined in an outer portion of the housing. An inner portion of the wheel extends into the spiral passageway adjacent the wire catheter and an outer portion of the wheel outwardly from the housing whereby the upper surface of the knob can be manipulated by a member of the surgical team in one direction and the wire catheter below the knob will be advanced in the opposite direction. The non-circular bearing has a generally circular outer portion in which the textured surface of the knob is only intermittently in contact with the catheter whereby the wire catheter may be advanced, and a generally linear inner portion sloping inwardly towards the catheter.