Catheter Tapered Guide Surface for Snag Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing catheters face difficulties in smoothly guiding guide wires through their lumens due to discontinuous surfaces, which can snag and prevent advancement, especially in tortuous vasculature, leading to challenges in reaching treatment sites in smaller vessels.
Innovation Solution
The thrombectomy catheter incorporates a composite guide with a first guide portion near the manifold assembly and a second guide portion near the catheter distal portion, featuring a guide insert and a tapered guide surface within the fluid jet loop, ensuring a smooth transition and minimizing snagging by providing a continuous guiding surface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a guide wire lumen is provided in the catheter, then guide wire delivery is enabled, but the catheter size increases and navigation through tortuous vasculature becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent consolidates the guide wire lumen and instrument lumen into a single passage, eliminating the need for a separate guide wire lumen. This merging of functions allows the catheter to maintain a smaller profile for better navigation through tortuous vasculature while still enabling guide wire delivery through the shared lumen.
2Device complexity
If instruments are positioned within instrument lumens with discontinuous surfaces, then instrument delivery is enabled, but guide wire advancement is snagged and prevented
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies a continuous guide surface specifically at the distal tip of the catheter where guide wires are advanced. This localized application of a smooth, continuous surface property resolves the snagging issue without requiring the entire instrument lumen to have a continuous surface, thus maintaining the necessary structural complexity for instrument delivery while improving guide wire advancement.
Solution Approach 2:
The continuous guide surface acts as an intermediary element between the discontinuous instrument lumen structure and the guide wire. It provides a smooth transition path that prevents snagging, allowing the guide wire to advance smoothly despite the discontinuous nature of the surrounding lumen structure.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the catheter is made larger to accommodate both guide wire lumen and instruments, then both functions are accommodated, but navigation through tortuous vasculature and access to smaller vessels is prevented
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a single lumen that serves multiple functions: it acts as both the guide wire lumen and the instrument lumen. This multi-functional design allows the catheter to accommodate both guide wire delivery and instrument passage through a single passage, eliminating the need for a larger catheter profile and enabling navigation through tortuous vasculature and access to smaller vessels.
Data Source
AI summary
A catheter assembly includes a catheter body having a catheter lumen. A manifold assembly is coupled with a proximal catheter portion. A manifold lumen extends through the manifold assembly, and the manifold lumen includes an assembly cavity extending around the proximal catheter portion. A fluid jet loop is coupled with a high pressure tube at a distal catheter portion. The catheter assembly further includes a tapered loop guide surface.