Biocorrodable Implant with Stimulus-Responsive Protective Coating
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Solution Overview
Problem
Biocorrodable implants, such as stents, face challenges in maintaining stability and integrity over their desired service life, as they begin to corrode immediately after implantation, leading to instability and premature degradation.
Innovation Solution
A biocorrodable implant with a base body composed of biocorrodable metallic or polymeric materials, coated with a non-biocorrodable protective layer that is initially impermeable to bodily media, featuring control elements that can change shape in response to external stimuli, allowing controlled initiation or acceleration of corrosion when needed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of stationary object
If a biocorrodable implant is used, then the implant can be gradually degraded in the body, but the implant begins to corrode immediately after implantation leading to instability and premature degradation
Solution Approach 1:
A protective coating is applied to the biocorrodable implant before implantation to prevent premature corrosion. This preliminary protective action ensures the implant maintains its stability and integrity throughout the desired service life, only degrading when the protective coating naturally wears away or is removed, thus resolving the contradiction between extended service life and maintained reliability.
2Reliability
If a protective coating is applied to prevent corrosion, then the implant maintains stability, but the corrosion process cannot be triggered or accelerated when needed
Solution Approach 1:
The protective coating is designed with dynamic properties that allow it to transition from a stable, corrosion-resistant state to a degraded state that enables controlled corrosion. This can be achieved through coatings that respond to specific stimuli (such as pH changes, enzyme presence, or mechanical stress) or coatings that can be selectively removed or activated, providing both stability when needed and adaptability for controlled degradation when required.
3Productivity
If the implant is made completely biocorrodable, then the implant degrades in the body, but the degradation process cannot be controlled or timed
Solution Approach 1:
An intermediary protective coating is introduced between the biocorrodable implant and the bodily environment. This coating acts as a mediator that controls the timing and rate of degradation by protecting the implant during the desired service life and then allowing controlled corrosion to proceed once the coating's protective function is no longer needed, thus enabling both complete biocorrosion and controlled degradation timing.
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 solution ensures that the implant remains stable until an external stimulus triggers the corrosion process, ensuring the desired service life and controlled degradation, thereby maintaining the implant's structural integrity and medical effectiveness.
Implementation Method 1
control elements which are configured in such a way that the protective layer, optionally in combination with the control elements, completely or partially encloses the base body so as to be impermeable to bodily medium, and the protective layer being convertible to a form which is permeable to bodily medium as the result of a change in shape of the control elements which may be regulated and/or controlled by an external stimulus
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a biocorrodable implant in which corrosion may be triggered or accelerated after implantation by applying an external stimulus, the implant having a base body which is completely or partially composed of a biocorrodable metallic material, and the base body having a coating with a protective layer which is not biocorrodable. According to the invention, the implant has control elements which are configured in such a way that the protective layer, optionally in combination with the control elements, completely or partially encloses the base body so as to be impermeable to bodily medium, and the protective layer being convertible to a form which is permeable to bodily medium as the result of a change in shape of the control elements which may be regulated and/or controlled by an external stimulus.