Balloon Expandable Ureteral Stent Retention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ureteral stents cause patient discomfort due to coils at the kidney and urinary bladder ends, leading to adverse effects like hemorrhage, frequent urination, and flank pain, and current solutions do not adequately address these issues while ensuring ureter patency.
Innovation Solution
A medical device with an elongate member and an expandable member, such as a balloon, is used to ensure ureter patency by being inserted into the ureter in a collapsed configuration and expanded to contact the ureter walls, providing retention and minimizing discomfort by reducing the need for coils.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If coils are used at the kidney distal end and urinary bladder proximal end of the stent, then the stent is retained in place and prevents migration, but patient discomfort increases due to contact with these regions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the coils from the stent structure entirely, replacing them with an expandable retention device that achieves anchoring without the harmful coil contacts that cause patient discomfort, hemorrhage, and frequent urination
Solution Approach 2:
The retention device changes its physical parameters from a compressed low-profile state during insertion to an expanded high-profile state after deployment, enabling it to provide strong retention forces against the ureteral wall without requiring coils at the problematic end regions
2Reliability
If the stent is designed to ensure ureter patency, then urinary drainage is maintained, but patient discomfort and adverse effects increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the coils from the stent design, eliminating the source of many adverse effects including hemorrhage, frequent urination, and flank pain, while maintaining ureter patency through the elongate member and alternative retention mechanism
Solution Approach 2:
The expandable retention device serves as an intermediary mechanism that provides the necessary anchoring function without using coils, thereby mediating between the need for secure stent placement and the need to minimize patient discomfort and adverse effects
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 device effectively maintains ureter patency while reducing patient discomfort by using an expandable member to secure the stent in place, potentially reducing adverse effects associated with traditional coil-based stents.
Implementation Method 1
The expandable member has an expanded configuration and a collapsed configuration. The expandable member is further configured to be inserted into the ureter of the patient and configured to contact the ureter to help retain the elongate member in place within the patient.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus is provided that includes an elongate member having a distal end portion, a proximal end portion, and a medial portion that is disposed between the distal end portion and the proximal end portion. The medial portion is configured to be disposed in a ureter of a patient. The apparatus further includes an expandable member that is coupled to the elongate member. The expandable member has an expanded configuration and a collapsed configuration. The expandable member is further configured to be inserted into the ureter of the patient and configured to contact the ureter to help retain the elongate member in place within the patient.