Articulating Guidewire Tip for Tortuous Vessel Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Guidewires used in neurovascular procedures face challenges in navigating tortuous vasculature without deformation or kinking, due to the need for precise manipulation and steerability in narrow and remote locations, where existing designs struggle to maintain required torsional, lateral, and tensile strengths.
Innovation Solution
A guidewire with a leading tip segment that can be selectively controlled by a clinician, featuring an articulation joint allowing pivotal movement relative to the elongate body segment, enabled by a control element that is longitudinally movable, facilitating precise steering through tortuous regions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the guidewire is made with smaller diameter to navigate narrow neurovasculature, then it can access remote locations, but it loses torsional, lateral, and tensile strength required for precise manipulation
Solution Approach 1:
The guidewire is divided into multiple segments with different functional properties: a flexible distal tip segment for navigation, a more rigid intermediate segment for support, and a proximal segment for operator control. This segmentation allows each segment to be optimized for its specific function, enabling the thin guidewire to maintain sufficient strength while navigating narrow vessels.
Solution Approach 2:
The guidewire employs composite construction with multiple materials having different mechanical properties. The distal tip may use a softer, more flexible material for gentle navigation, while proximal segments use stronger materials to maintain torsional and tensile strength. This composite approach allows the guidewire to achieve both small diameter and adequate strength.
2Measurement precision
If the guidewire uses a articulation joint with pivoting member for tip control, then steering precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The articulation joint incorporates a pivoting member that can dynamically change the orientation of the distal tip segment relative to the guidewire axis. This dynamic capability allows the tip to articulate in response to operator manipulation, providing enhanced steering precision without requiring complex active control systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The pivoting member acts as an intermediary mechanism between the operator's manipulation at the proximal end and the distal tip's orientation. This intermediate articulation joint translates simple proximal movements into precise distal positioning, achieving high steering precision while keeping the overall device design relatively simple.
Data Source
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AI summary
A guidewire for use in a medical procedure includes an elongate guide member (102) dimensioned for insertion within a body vessel of a subject. The guide member includes an elongate body segment (110) and a leading tip segment (106). The elongate body segment defines a longitudinal opening (120), and the leading tip segment is adapted and dimensioned to articulate relative to the elongate body segment about a single axis. A control element (118) extends through the longitudinal opening of the elongate body segment and is longitudinally movable through manual manipulation of a clinician to cause corresponding articulating movement of the leading tip segment.