Adjustable Prostate Implant Length for Precise BPH Placement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing implants for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) are not adaptable to varying prostate sizes, risking placement too deep and causing incontinence due to anatomical differences among patients.
Innovation Solution
The implant's length is modifiable through a sleeve that can be positioned and fixed at various points along the wires, allowing adaptation to individual patient anatomy, and the length of the holding element can also be varied to optimize treatment efficacy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the implant uses a fixed length wire structure, then the device is simple to manufacture and operate, but it cannot adapt to different prostate sizes and risks placing too deep causing incontinence
Solution Approach 1:
The implant incorporates a movable sleeve that can be positioned at different locations along the wire structure, allowing the effective length of the deployed implant to be dynamically adjusted according to the patient's prostate size. This dynamic adjustment capability enables the same implant design to adapt to various anatomical conditions without requiring multiple fixed-length implant variants.
2Reliability
If the implant is deployed to a fixed full length, then the treatment coverage is maximized, but it may extend too far into the bladder neck and damage the external sphincter
Solution Approach 1:
The sleeve is pre-positioned on the wire structure at a location that corresponds to the desired deployment length. Before the implant is deployed into the patient's body, the sleeve is already in place to prevent over-deployment. This preliminary positioning ensures that when the implant is activated, it automatically deploys to the correct, safe length without requiring complex real-time control mechanisms during the procedure.
3Manufacturing precision
If the sleeve is made freely displaceable for positioning, then the length can be adjusted to match prostate size, but the positioning precision may be insufficient without fixation
Solution Approach 1:
The sleeve acts as an intermediary component between the wire structure and the deployment mechanism. It provides a simple yet effective means of controlling deployment length by physically blocking the wires from expanding beyond the sleeve's position. The fixation mechanism (such as friction fit, mechanical interlock, or adhesive) secures the sleeve at the desired position without requiring complex active control systems, achieving reliable positioning through passive mechanical means.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The modifiable length of the implant and holding element reduces the risk of incontinence by ensuring precise placement, effectively treating prostates of different sizes without accidental tissue damage.
Implementation Method 1
a removable implant is temporarily placed in the urethra or in the prostatic portion of the urethra of the patient. Such an implant is a wire structure made of a shape-memory alloy, for example Nitinol. In a folded state, the wire structure is inserted through a catheter into the urinary tract and pushed to the correct position in order to deploy there into its predetermined basic structure.
Implementation Method 2
the wire structure, which can be formed from three or four wires, is a basket structure. This basket structure widens the urethra. Owing to the expansion of the wire structure against the tissue of the urethra, the tissue of the urethra becomes denatured over the course of a few days. This denaturation of the tissue takes place on account of the ischemic pressure of the individual wires on the cells of the tissue, which leads to reduced or completely absent blood flow.
Data Source
AI summary
An implant with which prostates of different sizes can be treated is achieved by the fact that the length of a deployed implant is modifiable to a variable extent. Through the change of length of a stretched-out wire structure of the implant, the implant can be adapted individually to the patient anatomy and the outcome of treatment can thus be improved.