Catheter Wire Guide Transitioning Straight to Bent Configuration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wire guides face difficulties navigating tortuous body lumens due to natural bends and unnatural impediments, often getting caught or perforating the lumen wall, and existing straight tips can exacerbate navigation issues and damage the lumen.
Innovation Solution
A method and system involving a catheter with a distal opening that allows a wire guide to transition from a straight to a bent configuration, enabling smoother navigation through tortuous paths while remaining retractable, using a distal portion that extends out of the catheter opening to form a flexible surface for advancement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a wire guide with a straight tip is advanced forward to navigate tortuous body lumens, then the wire guide can be easily inserted, but the advancing tip may bend into the lumen wall and become caught, making navigation difficult and possibly damaging the lumen wall
Solution Approach 1:
The wire guide tip is designed with a curved or angled configuration rather than a straight tip. The distal portion of the wire guide includes a curved section that allows the tip to follow tortuous pathways in body lumens without bending into the lumen wall, thereby preventing the wire guide from becoming caught and reducing the risk of damage while maintaining ease of insertion
2Reliability
If the wire guide tip is made flexible to navigate bends, then navigation through tortuous paths is improved, but the tip may get bent away from the desired path or caught in strictures
Solution Approach 1:
The wire guide is divided into distinct segments with different mechanical properties: a rigid proximal portion for stable insertion and control, and a flexible distal portion with curved geometry for navigating tortuous paths. This segmentation allows the wire guide to maintain path control through the rigid section while the flexible curved tip adapts to bends without getting caught in strictures
3Ease of operation
If a catheter opening is positioned proximal to the distal end to allow wire guide retraction, then wire guide withdrawal is enabled, but the wire guide navigation through tortuous paths becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The wire guide incorporates a curved distal portion that extends through the catheter opening, allowing the tip to navigate tortuous pathways effectively. The curved geometry enables the wire guide to follow natural lumens bends while the catheter opening positioned proximal to the distal end allows for easy retraction of the wire guide after navigation is complete
Data Source
AI summary
A system and a method of positioning a wire guide are provided. The method includes inserting a wire guide in a first configuration into a lumen of a catheter, distally advancing the wire guide to a distal portion of the lumen so that a distal end of the wire guide is distal to an opening in a wall of the catheter and advancing a distal portion of the wire guide through the opening by distally advancing the distal portion relative to the catheter so that the distal end remains in the lumen as the distal portion of the wire guide extends out of the opening. The method includes advancing the distal portion of the wire guide further out of the opening so that the distal end exits through the opening so that the distal portion is distal to the distal end of the wire guide in a second configuration.