Bidirectional Blood Filter with Bio-degradable Connecting Member
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing blood filters face issues such as tilting during deployment, incorrect insertion, and long-term complications like venous stasis, making them unsuitable for patients with short-term embolism risk, and existing solutions like bio-degradable filters do not adequately address these issues.
Innovation Solution
A filter unit with a stent-like body and cone-shaped units that expand to engage the blood vessel wall, allowing symmetrical placement from multiple approaches, featuring a bio-degradable connecting member that can be broken for easy removal and filtration termination, and a design that prevents migration and tilting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a permanent blood filter is implanted, then embolism prevention is achieved, but long-term complications like venous stasis and caval occlusion occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a bio-degradable polymer as the filter material that automatically dissolves after a predetermined period (e.g., 6 months to 2 years). This temporary filter prevents embolism during the critical risk period while eliminating long-term complications associated with permanent filters. The filter is designed to be absorbed by the body without requiring surgical removal.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes controlled bio-degradation of the polymer material over time. The filter transitions from an intact filtering structure to a gradually dissolving state, changing its physical and chemical parameters systematically. This allows the filter to provide protection during the risk period and then naturally disappear, avoiding chronic venous stasis and caval occlusion.
2Reliability
If a blood filter is deployed, then embolism protection is provided, but tilting and migration occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the filter into multiple independent struts or legs radiating from a central point, forming a conical structure. This segmentation allows each strut to independently engage with the vessel wall, preventing tilting and migration while maintaining filtration capability. The conical arrangement with tips pointing toward each other provides stable positioning.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a conical geometry with curved struts arranged radially. This curved, symmetrical design allows the filter to self-center in the blood vessel and resist tilting forces. The conical shape with apexes pointing toward each other creates geometric stability that prevents migration and ensures correct positioning regardless of insertion direction.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a filter unit is designed for symmetrical placement, then versatility is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs apparent asymmetry in the conical structure where the two cone-shaped units have different orientations (apexes pointing toward each other rather than away). This asymmetric arrangement within the symmetrical conical framework provides versatility for bidirectional insertion while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure. The symmetry allows the same filter to be inserted from either direction (femoral or jugular approach) without requiring different device configurations.
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 filter unit ensures correct placement, prevents tilting and migration, allows for bedside deployment without imaging, and can be easily removed or absorbed, reducing long-term complications and improving filtration efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
a stent-like body (2) having a superior end (4) and a inferior end (5), the stent-like body (2) being able to expand in order to engage a wall (1) of the blood vessel (1)
Implementation Method 2
two cone-shaped units (6, 7) each having a base opening and a tip, one base opening being operatively connected to the superior end (4) of the stent-like body (2), the other base opening being operatively connected to the inferior end (5) of the stent-like body (2), wherein the tips of the cone-shaped units (6, 7) point towards each other
Implementation Method 3
the connecting member is made of a bio-degradable material
Data Source
AI summary
A filter unit (3) for inserting into a blood vessel (1) is disclosed, the filter unit (3) comprising: —a stent-like body (2) having a superior end (4) and a inferior end (5), the stent-like body (2) being able to expand in order to engage a wall of the blood vessel (1), —two cone-shaped units (6, 7) each having a base opening (8, 9) and a tip (10, 11), one base opening (8) being operatively connected to the superior end (4) of the stent-like body (2), the other base opening (9) being operatively connected to the inferior end (5) of the stent-like body (2), wherein the tips (10, 11) of the cone-shaped units (6, 7) point towards each other.