Bone-Secured CSF Drainage Implant Bypassing Brain Tissue
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional shunts for treating hydrocephalus often cause complications such as brain injury, bleeding, seizures, infections, and intellectual deterioration due to the need to traverse brain tissue, and are prone to obstruction by brain tissue debris.
Innovation Solution
An implant system that includes an implant with a body having threads for securing it to a bone, and a needle that can be extended to pierce adjacent tissue and access an anatomical cavity, such as the cisterna magna, to drain cerebrospinal fluid without traversing brain tissue.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a shunt is placed to drain CSF from the brain ventricle through tubing inserted through brain tissue, then CSF drainage is achieved, but brain injury, bleeding, seizures, infections, and intellectual deterioration occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the harmful action of traversing brain tissue by removing the needle insertion step entirely. Instead, the implant is delivered through a bone opening (such as in the skull) directly into the subarachnoid space, eliminating contact with brain parenchyma and preventing associated injuries, bleeding, and infections while maintaining CSF drainage functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces bone (skull) as an intermediary structure through which the implant is delivered. This bone opening serves as a safe access route that replaces the dangerous direct brain tissue traversal, allowing the implant to reach the subarachnoid space without harming brain tissue, thus mediating between the external delivery system and the CSF drainage target.
2Reliability
If tubing is inserted through brain tissue to drain CSF, then CSF drainage is achieved, but the tubing becomes obstructed by brain tissue debris
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the source of debris obstruction by eliminating brain tissue traversal. Since the implant is delivered through bone rather than brain tissue, no brain tissue debris is generated or introduced into the drainage pathway, preventing clogging and maintaining long-term tubing patency while ensuring continuous CSF drainage.
3Ease of operation
If a needle is used to pierce brain tissue to access the ventricle, then CSF access is achieved, but tissue damage occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the harmful needle piercing action from the procedure by replacing it with a bone-based delivery system. The implant is inserted through a pre-drilled bone opening using a delivery device, eliminating the need for needle puncture of brain tissue while maintaining simple and direct access to the subarachnoid space for CSF drainage.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses bone and a delivery device as intermediaries to replace direct needle puncture of brain tissue. The delivery device guides the implant through the bone opening into the subarachnoid space, serving as a safe intermediary mechanism that achieves CSF access without causing tissue damage that would result from direct needle insertion into the brain.
Data Source
AI summary
An implant system can include a body defining a first end and a second end opposite the first end. The body can include an exterior surface including threads. The implant system can include a needle coupled to the body and extending past the second end of the body. The body can be configured to be driven into an opening in a bone to place the implant into the bone, thereby securing the implant to the bone. The body can be configured to be driven into the opening in the bone such that the needle pierces a tissue adjacent to the bone, thereby placing an end of the needle into an anatomical cavity.