Flexible Catheter Micro-Lumen for Lateral Fluid Delivery

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current fluid delivery devices struggle to navigate tortuous body anatomy and deliver medication to narrow diameter body lumens without causing tissue damage or systemic dilution, as they often result in medication dispersion and vessel occlusion, lacking image guidance for precise concentration delivery.

Innovation Solution

A flexible conduit with a micro-lumen system and image viewable zone, allowing for lateral fluid delivery at a controlled rate, constructed from biocompatible materials with reinforcement for kink resistance, enabling navigation through tortuous anatomy and maintaining high medication concentration at targeted sites.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Quantity of substance

If open-ended delivery catheter is used for systemic medication delivery, then medication can be delivered to body cavity, but medication quickly dilutes and diffuses to significantly less concentration immediately after delivery

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemedication concentrationVSAvoidsystemic loss of medication

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSLoss of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The catheter is divided into multiple segmented side openings distributed along its length, allowing localized medication delivery at multiple sites simultaneously. This segmentation prevents rapid systemic dilution by delivering medication directly to multiple target areas along the vessel wall, maintaining higher local concentrations while reducing overall systemic loss.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

2Quantity of substance

If side wall holes are created in delivery device for medication delivery, then medication can be delivered to vessel wall, but tissue damage occurs under injection delivery pressures

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemedication deliveryVSAvoidtissue damage

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The catheter incorporates a porous filter membrane at its distal end that allows medication to pass through via diffusion and pressure-driven flow while filtering out large particles and emboli. The porous structure distributes medication flow across multiple small pores, reducing jetting effects and preventing tissue damage while maintaining effective medication delivery to the vessel wall.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #31Porous materials

3Quantity of substance

If conventional balloon catheter is used for localized medication delivery, then medication can be delivered to treatment site, but multiple bonding zones and balloon geometry restrict access to tortuous anatomy and remote body cavity sites

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvelocalized medication deliveryVSAvoidaccess to tortuous anatomy

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The catheter employs a flexible, thin-walled construction with a soft, compliant shaft that can navigate tortuous anatomy and reach remote body cavity sites. The flexible design eliminates the need for rigid balloon structures and multiple bonding zones, allowing the catheter to conform to complex vascular pathways while maintaining the capability for localized medication delivery through its side openings and porous filter.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #30Flexible shells and thin films

4Length of moving object

If medication is delivered through narrow lumen without image guidance, then delivery device can access narrow diameter body lumen, but cannot determine location of highest concentration of medication delivered

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecatheter length for accessing narrow lumensVSAvoidlocation determination of medication concentration

Core Design Contradiction:

Length of moving objectVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The catheter incorporates radiopaque markers and imaging-compatible materials that enable real-time visualization under fluoroscopic or other imaging guidance. These markers, positioned at the distal end and along the shaft, allow operators to precisely determine the location of the catheter tip and side openings, ensuring accurate placement for localized medication delivery and enabling verification of the highest concentration delivery location.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #32Color changes

Data Source

PatentUS11213652B2Body lumen fluid delivery device

Publication Date: 2022.01.04 ATRIUM MEDICAL CORP

AI summary

A method and apparatus for fluid delivery enables navigation through tortuous, spatially restricted body anatomy to access narrow diameter body lumens for the continuous delivery of fluids, including therapeutic fluids, to the lumen in an atraumatic manner that avoids damage to the body lumen. The fluid delivery device can have a flexible conduit having a proximal end, a distal end, and a lumen extending along an interior of the flexible conduit providing a fluid flow path between the proximal and distal ends, where the lumen transitions into a micro-lumen exiting through a port through which a high concentration of fluid injected into the lumen exits laterally out along an image viewable zone at the distal end of the flexible conduit. The flexible conduit has a maximum outer diameter sized sufficient to navigate narrow diameter body lumens.