Corrugated Catheter With Segmented Support for Kink-Resistant Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing catheters face challenges in achieving flexibility and kink resistance, particularly in navigating tortuous anatomies, with issues arising from contact between adjacent corrugations during bending, which can lead to vessel damage and increased bending forces.
Innovation Solution
The catheter design incorporates a helical support within a jacket with varying configurations, including distal portions without a helical support, radiopaque bands, and a hydrophilic coating, along with a transition in jacket materials and corrugation patterns to maintain flexibility and reduce contact between corrugations, ensuring low bending forces and improved pushability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If corrugations are added to the catheter jacket to improve flexibility, then flexibility is improved, but adjacent corrugations may contact during bending causing increased bending forces and potential vessel damage
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter employs a corrugated jacket structure where the thin-walled corrugated tube provides flexibility while the controlled geometry of corrugations prevents adjacent ribs from contacting during bending, eliminating the harmful effect while maintaining adaptability
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter design modifies geometric parameters of the corrugations (depth, width, spacing) and material properties to achieve optimal flexibility while ensuring that adjacent corrugations do not contact during bending, thus preventing vessel damage
2Force
If a uniform helical support is provided throughout the catheter, then pushability is improved, but flexibility in distal portions is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is divided into distinct sections with different support characteristics: a proximal section with helical support for pushability and a distal section without helical support for enhanced flexibility, allowing each segment to perform its optimal function
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the catheter are assigned different structural qualities - the proximal portion has a helical support within a corrugated jacket for pushability, while the distal portion has no helical support for maximum flexibility, matching local functional requirements
3Strength
If jacket material stiffness is increased to improve structural support, then pushability is improved, but flexibility and ability to navigate tortuous anatomies is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter structure is segmented into a proximal portion with stiffer material and helical support for structural integrity and pushability, and a distal portion with more flexible material for navigating tortuous anatomies, allowing both requirements to be satisfied simultaneously
Data Source
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AI summary
A catheter (1) comprises a jacket (20, 33) and defining a lumen, and extends distally towards a tip (30, 31). The catheter has a helical support (20) within the jacket for at least some of the length of the jacket. The catheter distal end has a plurality of portions of different configurations for different bending and/or pushability characteristics. These may be according to different helical supports and the manner in which they are interwoven, and/or different liners with lap joints. There may be a hydrophilic coating.