Aspiration Catheter Slant Cut Tip for Restricted Vessel Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current aspiration catheters face limitations in reaching restricted spaces in smaller vessels and providing sufficient aspiration force and torquing response for effective removal of blood clots.
Innovation Solution
The catheter features a distal tip portion that deflects away from the longitudinal axis, forming a curved shape with a non-circular opening, and includes stretch-resistant filaments to maintain orientation and enhance torque response, allowing for increased suction force and navigation in tight spaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a straight catheter tip is used, then the catheter structure is simple, but it cannot reach restricted spaces in smaller vessels
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter tip is formed with a curved shape through a slant cut at an angle (e.g., 45 degrees) relative to the longitudinal axis, creating a non-circular cross-section. This curvature enables the tip to navigate restricted spaces and smaller vessels more effectively while maintaining structural simplicity.
2Force
If conventional catheter tip design is used, then manufacturing is simple, but aspiration force and torquing response are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter tip employs an asymmetric slant cut configuration where the cut angle relative to the longitudinal axis creates a non-circular opening. This asymmetric geometry concentrates aspiration force and improves torquing response, enabling more effective clot removal while remaining manufacturable through standard cutting processes.
3Ease of operation
If the tip is made flexible to reach restricted spaces, then navigation capability improves, but control and orientation stability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter implements localized flexibility at the tip region through the slant cut configuration, allowing the distal end to navigate restricted spaces. The proximal portion maintains structural rigidity for stable orientation and control, creating a gradient of mechanical properties that balances navigation capability with positional stability.
Data Source
AI summary
A catheter includes an elongate tubular body having a side wall defining a lumen extending between a proximal region and a distal region. The distal region comprises a tip portion capable of deflecting away from the proximal region when the tip portion is unconstrained, thereby forming a curved shape of the tip portion. The side wall of the elongate tubular body axially terminates at the tip portion with a slant cut, thereby forming an end surface of the tip portion defining an opening in a non-circular shape.