Coolable Energy Emitter for Airway Nerve Ablation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current management techniques for pulmonary diseases such as asthma and COPD are neither completely successful nor free from side effects, and many patients do not comply with their drug prescription dosage regimen, leading to challenges in improving airflow resistance without patient compliance.
Innovation Solution
A treatment system that includes a delivery device configured to move along a lumen of an airway, forming lesions to attenuate nerve tissue signals while minimizing damage to non-targeted features, using a collapsible ablation assembly with a coolable energy emitter assembly to treat target sites without affecting non-targeted anatomical features.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If energy is delivered to ablate targeted tissue, then treatment effectiveness is improved, but non-targeted tissue damage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The ablation assembly is designed to deliver energy locally to targeted tissue through a tissue-contacting portion while a cooling section simultaneously cools adjacent non-targeted tissue. This creates different thermal conditions in different spatial locations, allowing effective ablation of target tissue while protecting surrounding healthy tissue from thermal damage.
Solution Approach 2:
A coolant is introduced as an intermediary substance between the energy emitter and non-targeted tissue. The coolant absorbs excess thermal energy and prevents it from reaching non-targeted tissue, thereby mediating the interaction between the ablation energy and surrounding structures to prevent collateral damage.
2Ease of operation
If drug treatment is used to manage pulmonary diseases, then patient compliance becomes a challenge, but treatment success is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces the mechanical/administrative system of drug prescription and patient compliance with a direct energy-based therapeutic intervention. The ablation assembly delivers controlled energy to modify nerve tissue function, eliminating the need for ongoing patient adherence to medication regimens while achieving reliable therapeutic outcomes through a single procedural intervention.
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 treatment system effectively reduces airway obstruction by relaxing airway smooth muscle and decreasing mucus production, thereby improving breathing ease and enhancing patient quality of life and health status.
Implementation Method 1
an energy emitter assembly configured to output energy to ablate targeted tissue of a bronchial tree and through which a coolant is capable of flowing so as to cool a tissue-contacting portion of the energy emitter assembly
Implementation Method 2
an energy emitter assembly configured to output energy to ablate targeted tissue
Implementation Method 3
A delivery device includes an ablation assembly including a radiofrequency electrode configured to deliver radiofrequency energy to heat tissue of an airway wall
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, delivery devices, and methods to treat to ablate, damage, or otherwise affect tissue. The treatment systems are capable of delivering a coolable ablation assembly that ablates targeted tissue without damaging non-targeted tissue. The coolable ablation assembly damages nerve tissue to temporarily or permanently decrease nervous system input.