Concentric Vascular Filter with Anchoring and Alignment Baskets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vascular filters are bulky, difficult to deliver via over-the-wire methods, and often tilt within the blood vessel after deployment, lacking sufficient struts for effective filtering and stable anchoring.
Innovation Solution
A vascular filter design featuring two concentrically arranged baskets with shape-memory materials, where the first basket provides anchoring with thicker, barbed struts and the second basket offers alignment with thinner struts, allowing for self-expansion and secure vessel engagement, enabling over-the-wire delivery and improved filtering capacity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If existing vascular filters are designed with sufficient struts for effective filtering and stable anchoring, then filtering capacity and anchoring stability are improved, but the filter becomes bulky and difficult to deliver via over-the-wire methods
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a nested configuration where the first basket with thicker struts is positioned inside the second basket with thinner struts. Both baskets are collapsed together during delivery to fit through a guidewire, then expand to their functional configurations after deployment. This nesting allows sufficient struts for effective filtering and anchoring while maintaining a compact delivery profile.
Solution Approach 2:
The filter is divided into two separate baskets (first basket and second basket) with different functional characteristics. The first basket provides anchoring with thicker struts, while the second basket provides alignment and additional filtering with thinner struts. This segmentation allows each basket to be optimized for its specific function while together providing comprehensive filtering capacity and stable anchoring in a deliverable form factor.
2Stability of the object's composition
If existing vascular filters are designed for stable anchoring, then migration risk is reduced, but the filter often tilts within the blood vessel after deployment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different structural qualities to different parts of the filter system. The first basket has thicker struts specifically designed for anchoring into the vessel wall, while the second basket has thinner struts designed for alignment and maintaining the filter's orientation. This local differentiation of structural properties allows the filter to achieve both stable anchoring and proper orientation without tilting.
Solution Approach 2:
The second basket acts as an intermediary between the first basket and the blood flow. It provides alignment and orientation control that prevents tilting, while the first basket provides the primary anchoring. This intermediary structure mediates between the anchoring function and the orientation maintenance function, ensuring stable deployment without tilt.
3Ease of manufacture
If existing vascular filters are designed with simpler structures, then ease of manufacture is improved, but they lack sufficient struts for effective filtering
Solution Approach 1:
By nesting the first basket inside the second basket during delivery, the patent enables a complex multi-basket structure with sufficient struts for effective filtering to be manufactured and delivered through standard over-the-wire systems. The nested configuration allows the manufacture of two separate baskets with adequate strut numbers while maintaining compatibility with existing delivery infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a single-plane strut arrangement to a three-dimensional nested basket structure. This dimensional change allows struts to be arranged in multiple spatial configurations, increasing the effective number of filtering surfaces and strut interactions with blood clots without proportionally increasing manufacturing complexity. The nested arrangement in the radial dimension provides enhanced filtering capacity.
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 filter achieves stable deployment and effective filtration by providing sufficient anchoring and alignment, minimizing migration risk and facilitating easy retrieval, while allowing for compact delivery and deployment within the vena cava.
Implementation Method 1
The filter may include a shape-memory material, for example, Elgiloy or Nitinol, having the shape-memory of the expanded configuration
Data Source
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AI summary
A filter (20) comprises an inner, anchoring basket (10) arranged concentrically inside an outer, alignment basket (12). The anchoring basket (10) comprises a plurality of anchoring struts (38) terminating in barbs (54). The alignment basket (12) includes a plurality of alignment struts (40), which terminate downstream of the anchoring struts (38). A lumen (18) is provided through hubs (14, 16) of the filter (20) so that the filter (20) can be deployed over a guidewire (66).