Alternating Bridge Stent Design for Radial Stiffness and Flexibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current stent designs face challenges in accommodating varying anatomical shapes and forces within the body, particularly in regions like the pelvic veins, femoral arteries, and coronary arteries, where they need to provide both radial stiffness and flexibility to counteract compression and bending, while maintaining patency and durability.
Innovation Solution
A modular stent design featuring alternating sections with varying radial stiffness and flexibility, incorporating expandable ring members and bridging modules with specific strut and bridging element configurations to tailor the stent's properties to specific anatomical regions, ensuring adequate support and adaptability to dynamic forces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a stent is designed with high radial stiffness to counteract compression forces, then the ability to resist external crushing forces improves, but the flexibility to accommodate bending and dynamic motions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The stent is divided into multiple modular units (e.g., 3-7 expandable rings) connected by bridging members, allowing different sections to have different stiffness properties. This segmentation enables the stent to provide radial stiffness in compression-prone areas while maintaining flexibility in bending-prone areas, resolving the contradiction between strength and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
Different sections of the stent are designed with varying structural characteristics - some sections have denser bridging members or thicker struts for higher radial stiffness, while other sections have more flexible configurations for bending accommodation. This local quality variation allows the stent to simultaneously satisfy conflicting requirements at different locations along the stent length.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a stent is designed with high flexibility to accommodate dynamic motions, then the ability to bend and flex improves, but the radial support and structural stability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The modular design with discrete expandable rings and bridging members allows flexible movement between segments while maintaining overall structural integrity. The segmented architecture enables bending accommodation through inter-segment motion rather than continuous deformation, preserving structural stability even with high flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The stent combines different material properties and structural configurations within a single device - using materials with appropriate elastic moduli and designing composite structures (struts + bridging members) that provide both flexibility and structural stability, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and compositional stability.
3Stability of the object's composition
If a stent provides uniform scaffolding throughout the treatment region, then the structural support improves, but the ability to accommodate varied anatomical shapes and localized forces deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The stent is segmented into multiple modular units that can be independently configured or selectively expanded. This segmentation allows different sections to be tailored to specific anatomical requirements while maintaining overall scaffolding function, resolving the contradiction between uniformity and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
Different sections of the stent are designed with varying structural characteristics - some sections have denser bridging members or thicker struts for higher radial stiffness, while other sections have more flexible configurations for bending accommodation. This local quality variation allows the stent to simultaneously satisfy conflicting requirements at different locations along the stent length.
4Ease of manufacture
If a stent is designed as a single uniform structure, then the manufacturing simplicity improves, but the ability to provide region-specific mechanical properties deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The stent is divided into multiple modular units (e.g., 3-7 expandable rings) connected by bridging members, allowing different sections to have different stiffness properties. This segmentation enables the stent to provide radial stiffness in compression-prone areas while maintaining flexibility in bending-prone areas, resolving the contradiction between strength and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
Different sections of the stent are designed with varying structural characteristics - some sections have denser bridging members or thicker struts for higher radial stiffness, while other sections have more flexible configurations for bending accommodation. This local quality variation allows the stent to simultaneously satisfy conflicting requirements at different locations along the stent length.
Data Source
AI summary
A stent includes a first section and a second section. The first section and the second section each include a plurality of expandable modules and a plurality of bridging modules. Each expandable module includes a plurality of strut elements that join together at a plurality of apices, and each bridging module includes bridging elements that connect an apex of a first module with an apex of a second module. In some aspects, the first section is more flexible along the longitudinal axis of the stent than the second section and is configured to be placed in a specific region of a vessel that requires flexibility to accommodate surrounding anatomy. In some aspects, the first section is more radially stiff than the second section and is configured to be placed in a specific region of the vessel that requires radial stiffness to counteract crushing force caused by surrounding anatomy.