Vascular Catheter Side Ports Stabilize Injection Flow
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vascular catheters experience whiplash effects and inappropriate product distribution during injection, leading to vascular endothelium damage and suboptimal bolus formation, which compromises the quality of medical imaging and therapeutic delivery.
Innovation Solution
A single-lumen vascular catheter design featuring side ports and a progressively reducing end surface, which stabilizes the catheter and ensures radial product distribution, reducing the whiplash effect and improving bolus formation by minimizing longitudinal injection components and enhancing radial dispersion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If high injection rates (1-5 mL/s) are used to form a bolus for vascular opacification, then the quality of medical imaging is improved, but the catheter experiences whiplash effects causing vascular endothelium damage and inappropriate migration
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter outlet is segmented into multiple side ports (at least two) disposed symmetrically around the longitudinal axis, replacing a single central outlet. This segmentation distributes the injection flow across multiple smaller openings, reducing the reactive force on any single point and thereby minimizing whiplash effects while maintaining effective bolus formation for imaging quality
Solution Approach 2:
The side ports are positioned asymmetrically relative to the catheter length (near the distal end but before it), creating a specific geometric arrangement that optimizes flow distribution. The end surface is also asymmetrically designed with progressive reduction to control the exit flow pattern, ensuring radial injection that stabilizes the catheter during high-rate injection
2Measurement precision
If high injection rates are used to create a bolus, then vascular opacification is improved, but the catheter undergoes whiplash and reaction forces causing inappropriate migration
Solution Approach 1:
By dividing the outlet into multiple symmetric side ports, the injection forces are distributed in a balanced manner around the catheter axis. This symmetric segmentation creates opposing forces that cancel each other out, preventing net lateral forces that would cause catheter migration and maintaining positional stability during high-rate injection
Solution Approach 2:
The injection flow is redirected from a primarily longitudinal direction (through a terminal port) to a radial direction (through side ports). This dimensional change in flow direction alters the force vector distribution, causing the bolus to be injected radially into the vessel while the catheter remains stabilized along its longitudinal axis
3Device complexity
If a terminal port design is used for product injection, then the catheter structure is simple, but the product distribution is suboptimal and whiplash effects occur
Solution Approach 1:
The simple terminal port structure is replaced with segmented side ports that maintain manufacturing simplicity while dramatically improving product distribution. The side ports can be created using standard manufacturing techniques (drilling, laser cutting) and provide superior flow distribution patterns for optimal bolus formation and vascular opacification
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 catheter design significantly reduces whiplash effects, improves the quality of bolus formation, and enhances the reliability of medical imaging and therapeutic delivery by ensuring homogeneous product distribution, thereby reducing vascular damage and improving examination quality.
Implementation Method 1
the volume exits radially from the catheter mainly via the side ports and encloses the end of the catheter to stabilize the tube and inject the product out of the catheter radially in the flow of the blood flow channel longitudinal to the tube
Implementation Method 2
the injection produced by reaction, whiplash, having two horizontal and vertical components likely to mobilize the end of the catheter... the volume exits radially from the catheter mainly via the side ports and encloses the end of the catheter to stabilize the tube
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a single-lumen vascular catheter to be inserted into a blood flow channel for the injection of a product by the venous or arterial route, comprising a tube having a hollow longitudinal body with a lumen, the lumen extending along the full length of the tube and being intended to permit the injection of a given volume of product at a prescribed flow rate the tube having lateral orifices which are of substantially identical size and are arranged in the longitudinal body substantially symmetrically about the longitudinal axis, near a distal end of the tube, an end surface at the distal end of the tube reducing a total surface area of the lumen starting from the distal end of the tube.