Beveled Elliptical Port Catheter with Fixed Guidewire
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current diagnostic catheters face challenges such as reduced flexibility due to long guidewires, air embolism risks from wire retraction, and complexity in procedures like double flushing and periodic wire retraction, which complicate navigation and increase the risk of vessel dissection.
Innovation Solution
A diagnostic catheter with a beveled distal end and a fixed guidewire extending distally, allowing for easier navigation, reduced stiffness, and continuous heparinized saline infusion, eliminating the need for separate wire retraction and simplifying procedures by integrating the wire within the catheter body.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If a long guidewire is used in diagnostic catheters, then the wire provides sufficient length for wire manipulation and therapeutic catheter exchange, but the catheter flexibility is reduced making navigation through tortuous anatomy difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The guidewire is segmented into two distinct parts: a fixed distal portion embedded in the catheter body and a separate proximal portion that can be manipulated independently. This segmentation allows the distal fixed wire to provide structural support and reduce shelving effect, while the proximal movable wire maintains catheter flexibility for navigation through tortuous anatomy.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention merges the guidewire and catheter body by embedding the distal portion of the guidewire within the catheter structure. This integration eliminates the shelf effect at the catheter tip while maintaining the necessary length for wire manipulation and therapeutic catheter exchange procedures.
2Ease of operation
If the guidewire is pulled back during catheter advancement, then the lumen is opened for contrast media injection, but negative pressure releases air bubbles creating air emboli that can cause strokes
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is designed with pre-formed beveled distal ends that facilitate easier entry into vessels without requiring wire retraction. The fixed distal guidewire maintains lumen patency and structural integrity, allowing contrast injection without the harmful wire pull-back action that creates negative pressure and air emboli.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts the problematic wire pull-back action from the procedure by providing alternative access methods through the beveled catheter design and fixed wire structure, eliminating the need to retract the guidewire for lumen access and thereby preventing air embolism formation.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If larger diameter guidewires are used, then the shelf effect is reduced decreasing risk of catching on branch vessels, but the wire flexibility is reduced making navigation even more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The guidewire exhibits local quality variation with a larger diameter distal portion embedded in the catheter to reduce shelving effect, and a thinner proximal portion that maintains flexibility for navigation. This local differentiation allows the wire to simultaneously reduce shelf height at the catheter tip while maintaining adequate flexibility for advancing through the vasculature.
Data Source
AI summary
A catheter includes a catheter body having a proximal end, a beveled distal end, and a lumen therethrough. The beveled distal end defines an elliptical port for releasing contrast or other media through the lumen and from the elliptical port. The catheter may also be used delivering devices or for aspirating or extracting materials from the vasculature or other body lumens. A fixed guidewire extends distally from the distal end of the catheter body, typically from the distal-most edge of the elliptical port. The fixed wire is typically malleable so that it can be manually formed into a desired shape. The elliptical port may be flat or concave.