The steerable catheter refers to the catheter that is manipulated by a mechanism which may be driven by operators or by actuators. The steerable catheter for minimally invasive surgery has rapidly become a rich and diverse area of research. Many important achievements in design, application and analysis of the steerable catheter have been made in the past decade. This paper aims to provide an overview of the state of arts of steerable catheters. Steerable catheters are classified into four main groups based on the actuation principle: (1) tendon driven catheters, (2) magnetic navigation catheters, (3) soft material driven catheters (shape memory effect catheters, steerable needles, concentric tubes, conducting polymer driven catheters and hydraulic pressure driven catheters), and (4) hybrid actuation catheters. The advantages and limitations of each of them are commented and discussed in this paper. The future directions of research are summarized.

可转向导管是指由可以由操作员或致动器驱动的机构操纵的导管。用于微创外科手术的可操纵导管已迅速成为一个丰富而多样的研究领域。在过去的十年中，在可操纵导管的设计，应用和分析方面取得了许多重要成就。本文旨在提供可控导管技术的概述。根据致动原理，可操纵导管可分为四个主要类别：（1）肌腱驱动导管，（2）磁导航导管，（3）软材料驱动导管（形状记忆效应导管，可操纵针，同心管，导电聚合物驱动导管和液压驱动导管），以及（4）混合驱动导管。本文分别对它们各自的优缺点进行了评论和讨论。总结了未来的研究方向。