Catheter Sleeve Web Structure for Flexible Valve Implant Release
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing catheters used for implanting self-expanding heart valve implants suffer from limited flexibility and pliability, leading to reactive forces that can cause permanent deformations and vessel injuries during implant release and retraction.
Innovation Solution
A catheter sleeve with a tubular discontinuous structure featuring a main web with a through-gap and bridge webs, allowing high flexural elasticity and the ability to transmit pressure forces, preventing deformation and facilitating smooth implant release and retraction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a catheter sleeve is used to hold and release self-expanding heart valve implants, then the implant can be advanced through vessels and deployed at the treatment site, but the catheter sleeve experiences reactive forces that cause permanent deformations and vessel injuries
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter sleeve is divided into multiple segments or zones with different stiffness characteristics. The proximal portion has higher stiffness to maintain structural integrity during implant release, while the distal portion has lower stiffness to accommodate vessel curvature and reduce reactive forces. This segmentation allows each portion to perform its specific function optimally without causing damage.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the catheter sleeve are assigned different mechanical properties. The proximal end uses stiffer material to withstand deployment forces, while the distal end uses more compliant material to follow vessel anatomy and minimize trauma. This local differentiation of material properties resolves the contradiction between needing strength for implant release and flexibility to avoid vessel injury.
2Strength
If the catheter sleeve is made stiffer to prevent deformation during implant release, then structural integrity is improved, but flexibility and pliability are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter sleeve is segmented into proximal and distal portions with different stiffness characteristics. The proximal portion maintains higher structural integrity for implant release, while the distal portion provides flexibility for navigation and deployment, resolving the contradiction between strength and flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter sleeve incorporates dynamic elements such as expandable baskets or self-expanding mechanisms that allow the sleeve to adapt its stiffness during the procedure. The sleeve can be stiff during implant release and then become more flexible during retraction, providing both structural integrity and ease of operation at different stages.
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 sleeve ensures high flexibility and effective transmission of radial and axial forces, preventing vessel injuries and allowing seamless implant deployment and retrieval without deformation.
Implementation Method 1
The bridge web is free to flare in the circumferential direction
Data Source
AI summary
A sleeve for a catheter includes a plurality of webs that extend in a longitudinal direction and are connected to one another by an undulating web in a circumferential direction to form a main web. A through gap is in least one web of the plurality of webs, and the at least one web extends in the longitudinal direction away from the gap on each side of the gap. A bridge web is connected to the at least one web only distally and proximally to the at least one web on each side of the gap. The bridge web is free to flare in the circumferential direction.