Reinforced Catheter Transition with Flexible Tip
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Intravascular catheters often kink or prolapse when navigating through tortuous vascular sections, leading to degraded performance and increased friction, making it difficult to advance them through the body's vasculature.
Innovation Solution
A multi-layer distal tip construction for intravascular devices, including a lubricious inner layer, an adhesive middle layer, and a flexible outer layer, combined with a reinforced transition portion supported by a polyimide and/or stainless steel tube, to prevent kinking and prolapse, ensuring low friction and effective tracking within the vasculature.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the catheter is made flexible to navigate tortuous vasculature, then ease of operation is improved, but the catheter becomes prone to kinking and prolapse
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is divided into distinct sections with different flexibility characteristics: a more flexible distal tip for navigating tortuous vasculature and a stiffer proximal section for maintaining structural integrity and preventing kinking
Solution Approach 2:
Different sections of the catheter have locally optimized properties - the distal tip is made more flexible with softer materials to ease navigation, while the proximal section maintains higher stiffness for reliability, with a gradual transition between regions
2Device complexity
If the catheter tip is made shorter to reduce cross-sectional area, then device complexity is reduced, but the catheter becomes more prone to kinking in unsupported regions
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter incorporates composite construction with multiple materials of different stiffness properties - softer flexible materials in the distal tip region and stiffer materials in the proximal section, creating a gradient that maintains strength while enabling flexibility
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter design allows dynamic adaptation of flexibility along its length, with the transition zone providing a gradual change in mechanical properties to prevent sharp bends and kinking while maintaining a compact overall structure
3Reliability
If a reinforced transition portion is added to prevent kinking, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is divided into distinct sections with different flexibility characteristics: a more flexible distal tip for navigating tortuous vasculature and a stiffer proximal section for maintaining structural integrity and preventing kinking
Solution Approach 2:
Different sections of the catheter have locally optimized properties - the distal tip is made more flexible with softer materials to ease navigation, while the proximal section maintains higher stiffness for reliability, with a gradual transition between regions
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 provides improved handling characteristics and resistance to kinking or prolapse, allowing for smooth navigation through tortuous regions with reduced friction and enhanced torque transmission, maintaining catheter performance.
Implementation Method 1
a lubricious inner layer
Implementation Method 2
the distal tip material is positioned about an inner shaft and which is used as a tie layer for thermally bonding two incompatible materials together
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
The present disclosure provides various embodiments of a sheath for a rotational intravascular probe for insertion into a vasculature. An exemplary sheath includes a flexible portion having a lumen for receiving an ultrasound probe, a distal portion that includes a flexible multi-layer tip, and a transition portion that couples the proximal portion and the distal portion. The multi-layer tip defines a guide wire lumen having a distal guide wire opening and a proximal guide wire opening through a sidewall. In some embodiments, an area between the proximal guide wire entry opening and the flexible proximal portion is supported to prevent kinking and prolapse.