Adjustable Stent Length via Catheter Actuation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current stent delivery systems face challenges in accurately estimating the length of diseased vessel segments, leading to issues such as incomplete treatment, corrosion, vessel stiffening, and increased procedural time and cost due to the need for multiple stents and potential complications like pain, bleeding, and high restenosis rates.
Innovation Solution
A stent delivery catheter system that allows for adjustable stent length modification using tensile, compressive, or torquing forces, maintaining a consistent circumference and enabling precise length adjustment before radial expansion, utilizing a mechanism to change the relative positions of inner and outer tubular members to modify the stent length.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a fixed-length stent is used, then the stent structure is simple and manufacturing is easy, but the stent cannot precisely match the variable length of diseased vessel segments
Solution Approach 1:
The stent structure is designed with expandable cells that can dynamically change length in response to applied forces. The cellular geometry allows the stent to be stretched or compressed along its longitudinal axis while maintaining structural integrity, enabling precise length adjustment to match the diseased segment
Solution Approach 2:
The stent's physical parameters, specifically its length, can be changed by applying tensile or compressive forces during delivery. This allows the stent to be adjusted from an initial length to a modified length that precisely matches the target vessel segment, improving manufacturing precision without requiring multiple fixed-length stent designs
2Reliability
If multiple stents are deployed to cover the diseased segment, then complete vessel coverage is achieved, but procedural time and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The ability to dynamically adjust stent length in-situ allows a single stent to be expanded or compressed to precisely match the length of the diseased segment, eliminating the need to deploy multiple overlapping stents and reducing procedural time while maintaining complete vessel coverage
Solution Approach 2:
The stent is delivered in a compressed state within the delivery catheter, allowing it to be positioned at the target site before expansion. This preliminary compression enables the stent to fit through narrow vessels and be deployed as a single unit, reducing the need for multiple stent deployments
3Reliability
If multiple stents are used to treat long diseased segments, then complete coverage is achieved, but corrosion and vessel stiffening occur at stent interfaces
Solution Approach 1:
By enabling a single stent to dynamically adjust its length to cover the entire diseased segment, the invention eliminates stent-stent interfaces where corrosion and vessel stiffening would occur, while still achieving complete vessel coverage
Solution Approach 2:
The invention merges the function of multiple fixed-length stents into a single adjustable-length stent. This consolidation eliminates the interfaces between multiple stents, preventing corrosion and vessel stiffening at those interfaces while maintaining complete coverage of the diseased segment
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
Enables precise matching of stent length to the diseased segment, reducing complications and procedural time by ensuring complete vessel coverage with fewer stents, minimizing corrosion and vessel stiffening, and improving treatment efficacy.
Implementation Method 1
the implant includes a plurality of strut sections interconnected by bridges which are capable of the deformation along the longitudinal axis of the implant
Data Source
AI summary
An implant delivery catheter enables permanent modification of the implant length in the vicinity of the treatment site prior to radial expansion thereof. The implant is releasable carried between inner and outer tubular members of the delivery catheter which, upon repositioning relative to one another using an actuator mechanism, impart any of tensile, compressile or torquing forces to the implant causing permanent modification of the implant length. In one embodiment, the circumference of the implant is substantially similar both before and after modification of the implant length. In another embodiment, the implant includes a plurality of strut sections interconnected by bridges which are capable of the deformation along the longitudinal axis of the implant.