Catheter Tip Perforations for Uniform Tissue Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical devices used for tissue cooling, such as catheters during cardiac ablation therapy, often fail to uniformly cool the treatment area due to blockage of irrigation holes, leading to inadequate tissue cooling and potential collateral damage.
Innovation Solution
A medical device with a distal tip featuring multiple circumferentially and longitudinally distributed perforations, coupled with a lumen for fluid delivery, ensures uniform irrigation and prevents adhesion, using a method like electrical spark discharge to create precise and varied perforations for efficient cooling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a limited number of irrigation holes are used in the catheter tip, then the device structure remains simple, but the cooling uniformity and reliability deteriorate due to blockage risks
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter tip is segmented into multiple perforations distributed across its surface, transforming a single cooling pathway into numerous parallel pathways. This segmentation ensures that if some perforations become blocked, others remain functional, thereby improving cooling reliability without requiring complex active control mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the catheter tip are provided with perforations of varying sizes and densities. The perforation distribution is optimized for local cooling requirements, with higher density in areas requiring more intensive cooling. This local quality approach enhances overall cooling uniformity while maintaining structural simplicity.
2Quantity of substance
If a small number of large perforations are used, then the irrigation flow rate is high, but the cooling uniformity deteriorates and tissue adhesion increases
Solution Approach 1:
The total irrigation flow is segmented into numerous small perforations rather than a few large ones. This distribution of flow across many outlets ensures uniform cooling across the tissue surface, preventing localized overheating while maintaining adequate overall fluid delivery quantity.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter tip is designed with a porous structure comprising multiple perforations, allowing distributed fluid ejection. This porous configuration enhances cooling uniformity by creating a widespread coolant distribution pattern, preventing tissue adhesion through uniform temperature reduction across the contact surface.
3Reliability
If the catheter tip is extensively irrigated to prevent adhesion, then adhesion prevention is improved, but collateral tissue damage increases due to fluid overload
Solution Approach 1:
The perforation density and size are locally optimized to provide precise control over fluid delivery in different regions. This allows adequate irrigation for adhesion prevention in high-risk areas while limiting fluid delivery in areas where overload could cause collateral damage, achieving balanced protection.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of uniform extensive irrigation across the entire catheter tip, the invention applies partial irrigation through selectively distributed perforations. This provides sufficient cooling and adhesion prevention where needed while avoiding excessive fluid delivery that could cause tissue damage, implementing a controlled partial action approach.
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 solution effectively reduces collateral tissue damage and ensures uniform cooling of the treatment area, preventing adhesion and optimizing fluid delivery without overloading the tissue with irrigation fluid.
Implementation Method 1
A pump coupled to the catheter delivers saline solution to the catheter tip, and the solution flows out through the holes during the procedure in order to cool the catheter tip and the tissue
Implementation Method 2
using a method like electrical spark discharge to create precise and varied perforations
Data Source
AI summary
A medical device includes an insertion tube, having a distal end for insertion into a body of a subject. A distal tip is fixed to the distal end of the insertion tube and is coupled to apply energy to tissue inside the body. The distal tip has an outer surface with a plurality of perforations through the outer surface, which are distributed circumferentially and longitudinally over the distal tip. A lumen passes through the insertion tube and is coupled to deliver a fluid to the tissue via the perforations.