Bone Cement Injector with Thermal Viscosity Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current bone cement injection systems for osteoporotic fractures, such as vertebral compression fractures, face challenges with uncontrolled viscosity and flow rate, leading to leakage and complications like pulmonary embolism and incomplete vertebral height restoration during procedures like vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty.
Innovation Solution
A device with a thermal energy emitter integrated into the handle body of a bone cement injector system, which applies energy to the cement to control its polymerization rate and viscosity, combined with a dual-pressure drive mechanism for precise cement delivery, ensuring controlled flow and reduced leakage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If bone cement is injected under high pressure to force it into cancellous bone, then injection effectiveness is improved, but cement leakage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically changes the viscosity parameter of the bone cement by controlling polymerization through thermal energy emission. By adjusting viscosity in real-time during injection, the system maintains optimal flow characteristics for penetration while preventing leakage, thus resolving the contradiction between injection effectiveness and leakage prevention
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback control by monitoring injection pressure and flow rate, then adjusting thermal energy emission accordingly. This closed-loop control enables real-time optimization of cement viscosity to match injection conditions, ensuring effective delivery without excessive leakage
2Ease of operation
If bone cement viscosity is kept low to facilitate injection, then ease of injection is improved, but control over cement flow decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system transforms the static viscosity of traditional bone cement into a dynamic property by using thermal energy to control polymerization rate. This allows viscosity to change over time during injection, providing both initial low viscosity for easy injection and subsequent high viscosity for flow control, resolving the contradiction between ease of injection and flow control reliability
3Productivity
If polymerization of bone cement is accelerated to reduce setting time, then treatment efficiency is improved, but viscosity control becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system maintains continuous thermal energy emission during injection to sustain controlled polymerization. This continuous action ensures consistent viscosity control throughout the procedure while accelerating overall treatment efficiency, resolving the contradiction between treatment efficiency and viscosity control precision
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 system achieves controlled bone cement delivery with a consistent viscosity, minimizing leakage and enhancing vertebral height restoration by accelerating polymerization and optimizing pressure conditions during injection.
Implementation Method 1
a thermal energy emitter integrated into the handle body of a bone cement injector system, which applies energy to the cement to control its polymerization rate and viscosity
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methods for delivering bone cement into a bone can include a handle body defining a flow path, a thermal emitter in the handle body to apply energy to bone cement passing through the flow path, a source of bone cement and an injection cannula. The cannula can be in communication with the flow path such that inserting the cannula into a bone can allow a flow of bone cement therethrough to an opening at a distal end of the cannula. Other systems and methods for delivering bone cement into a bone can include an injector body with a handle portion, and a cannula, a bone cement container, a low pressure drive mechanism configured to effect a flow of bone cement from said container to the injector body and a high pressure drive mechanism configured to effect a flow of bone cement through the injector body into the bone.