Implantable AV Shunt with Integrated Flow Surveillance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional arteriovenous shunts for hemodialysis often fail due to issues like myointimal hyperplasia, thrombosis, and stenosis, which can go undetected, leading to unpredictable and potentially devastating consequences, as they lack the ability to monitor and report their own patency data.
Innovation Solution
An implantable modular AV shunt device capable of monitoring and reporting its own patency, featuring modular components that can be assembled and adjusted during implantation to provide a custom fit, along with an integrated surveillance system that collects and transmits flow data using sensors and a microprocessor for further analysis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional AV shunts are used for hemodialysis, then blood flow access is established, but the shunt lacks monitoring capability leading to undetected complications and unpredictable failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates flow sensors and pressure sensors within the AV shunt that continuously monitor blood flow conditions and transmit this feedback data to external devices. This feedback mechanism enables real-time detection of complications such as thrombosis, stenosis, and myointimalhyperplasia, allowing for timely intervention to maintain shunt patency and prevent failure.
Solution Approach 2:
The AV shunt system performs self-monitoring of its own patency and functional status through integrated sensors. The shunt independently detects its own flow conditions and transmits this information without requiring external intervention, enabling the system to serve its own surveillance needs and alert users to potential problems.
2Adaptability or versatility
If modular components are used to provide custom fit, then adaptability to patient anatomy is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The AV shunt is divided into multiple modular components including different length segments and configuration units that can be selectively assembled. This segmentation allows the system to be customized to match individual patient anatomical requirements while maintaining manageable complexity through standardized connection interfaces and assembly procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
A hemodialytic angioacess device for implantation in dialysis patients, comprising an arteriovenous (AV) shunt, anastomotic valves that connect the AV shunt to blood vessels, a valve control system and an integrated surveillance system that measures flow conditions in the blood vessels at the AV shunt, preferably when the valves are closed and the patient is not undergoing dialysis treatment. The flow condition data, which may include data representing the flow rate, pressure, volume and velocity of blood flowing through the vessels, is stored in a memory and transmitted to a health care provider or technician on demand. The data can be used to calculate and monitor important physiological parameters, such as compliance and resistance, for the blood vessels, and help detect and identify dangerous conditions, such as turbulence and stasis, which can contribute to AV shunt failure, vessel injury and other serious complications for the patient.