Catheter Coupling Device with Germ Barrier and Magnetic Drive
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing catheter devices used in minimally invasive medical procedures, such as blood pumps, face challenges in reliably coupling a drive unit while maintaining asepsis, especially due to the high mechanical and thermal stress on flexible shafts and the need for costly and sensitive magnetic couplings.
Innovation Solution
A catheter device with a hollow catheter and a moveable shaft, featuring a proximal coupling device with a coupling cavity that includes means to reduce pathogenicity, such as a germ barrier in the form of a gel-filled partial chamber or an irradiation chamber, allowing for detachable coupling with a drive device while ensuring asepsis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If magnetic couplings are used to drive the shaft externally, then asepsis is maintained, but the device becomes more expensive and less efficient
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the drive shaft from the sterile catheter system and drives it externally through the catheter wall using magnetic coupling. This separates the sterile environment (catheter interior) from the non-sterile drive mechanism, maintaining asepsis while enabling mechanical drive transmission without complex sealed couplings inside the catheter.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter wall acts as an intermediary barrier between the sterile internal environment and the non-sterile external drive mechanism. Magnetic fields penetrate this barrier to transmit torque without physical contact, maintaining the sterile boundary while enabling drive transmission.
2Reliability
If magnetic couplings are used to transmit torque, then asepsis is maintained, but torque transmission efficiency decreases requiring over-dimensioning
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces mechanical coupling systems (which would require complex sealed connections) with magnetic field-based torque transmission. This substitution maintains the sterile barrier while improving efficiency, as magnetic coupling losses are minimized through proper magnet geometry and positioning.
3Productivity
If the shaft is rotated at high speeds, then pump performance is improved, but mechanical and thermal stress on the shaft increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses a liquid medium (biocompatible fluid) filled in the catheter to provide lubrication and cooling for the rotating shaft. This hydraulic approach reduces friction and heat generation during high-speed rotation, allowing improved pump performance without excessive mechanical or thermal stress on the shaft.
4Strength
If the catheter is filled with lubrication and cooling liquid, then shaft stress is reduced, but the coupling device must maintain asepsis
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the system into sterile and non-sterile zones separated by the catheter wall. The internal catheter environment maintains asepsis with lubrication/cooling liquid, while the external drive mechanism operates independently. This segmentation allows both requirements to coexist without compromising either shaft durability or sterility.
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 enables reliable and economical coupling of the catheter device to a drive unit while maintaining asepsis, reducing the risk of pathogenic substance transmission, and minimizing mechanical and thermal stress on the flexible shaft, even at high rotation speeds.
Implementation Method 1
The coupling device, in particular the coupling cavity, thereby has means for reducing the pathogenicity of pathogenic substances or microorganisms, preferably in the form of a germ barrier
Implementation Method 2
an irradiation chamber, which can be supplied with germicidal radiation, in particular light, preferably UV light
Implementation Method 3
it is normal to fill corresponding hollow catheters with a biocompatible liquid for lubrication and cooling of the shaft
Implementation Method 4
fill corresponding hollow catheters with a biocompatible liquid for lubrication and cooling of the shaft
Implementation Method 5
motor drives with magnetic couplings are used as drives at the proximal end of the shaft, externally of the body, which drives act through hermetically scaled housing walls
Data Source
AI summary
Catheter device, having a hollow catheter in the catheter cavity of which a moveable shaft is guided, having a proximal coupling device, for detachable coupling of a drive device, the coupling device having a coupling cavity which is open towards the drive device and into which the shaft or an extension of the shaft protrudes with a connection element for mechanical coupling of a motor shaft, the coupling cavity having a germ barrier for reducing the pathogenicity of pathogenic substances or microorganisms.