Deformable Medical Lumen with Flat Inner Surface
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical devices face challenges in efficiently capturing and removing urinary tract stones due to the need for laborious individual extraction and the difficulty in maintaining suction force when the lumen is deformed by varying stone sizes and shapes within the body.
Innovation Solution
A medical device with a deformable accommodation unit and impeller system that maintains a flat inner surface before and after deformation, allowing for efficient aspiration and capture of stones regardless of lumen shape changes, using an expandable member and filter to accommodate and extract stones with a propeller-type impeller for fluid flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the lumen is deformed to accommodate varying stone sizes and shapes, then the adaptability is improved, but the fluid flow is hindered and suction force is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The lumen is designed with a flexible structure that can deform to accommodate different stone sizes and shapes while maintaining functional performance. The flexible shell allows the lumen to adapt its shape without compromising the flatness of the inner surface, thus resolving the contradiction between adaptability and suction force maintenance.
Solution Approach 2:
The inner surface of the lumen is pre-configured to return to or maintain a flat state after deformation. This preliminary design ensures that even though the lumen deforms to accommodate stones, the critical inner surface remains flat enough to maintain fluid flow and suction force, preventing the worsening of reliability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the lumen is made deformable to accommodate different stone sizes, then the versatility is improved, but unevenness occurs in the lumen which disturbs fluid flow
Solution Approach 1:
The lumen utilizes a flexible shell structure that can deform externally to accommodate various stone sizes while internally maintaining a smooth, flat surface. This flexible design allows the outer shape to adapt without creating inner unevenness that would disturb fluid flow, thus resolving the contradiction between versatility and flow disturbance.
Solution Approach 2:
The lumen is designed with differentiated properties: the outer surface is flexible and deformable to adapt to different stone configurations, while the inner surface maintains local flatness to ensure smooth fluid flow. This local quality differentiation resolves the contradiction by allowing deformation where needed while preventing flow disturbance where critical.
3Measurement precision
If basket forceps are used to pick and extract calculus one by one, then the capturing precision is improved, but the productivity is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The device employs hydraulic or pneumatic mechanisms to generate suction force that draws multiple calculus into the lumen simultaneously. This fluid-based approach replaces the manual picking method, enabling multiple stones to be captured and extracted in one operation, thus resolving the contradiction between capturing precision and extraction efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The device combines multiple capturing functions into a single lumen structure that can accommodate and extract multiple calculus simultaneously. By merging the function of picking individual stones with the function of bulk extraction, the device achieves both capturing precision and improved productivity, resolving the contradiction between the two parameters.
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 device ensures sustained suction force and effective capture of stones even when the lumen is deformed, accommodating varying stone sizes and shapes within the body, facilitating efficient removal without hindering fluid flow.
Implementation Method 1
an impeller which causes a fluid to flow from the distal opening portion toward the proximal opening portion inside the living body so as to allow the lumen to aspirate the capturing target together with the fluid
Implementation Method 2
a filter for capturing at least one or more of the capturing targets
Data Source
AI summary
A medical device and method are disclosed, which can sufficiently capture a capturing target even if a lumen is deformed. A medical device has an accommodation unit and an impeller holding unit. The accommodation unit includes a lumen which accommodates a capturing target present inside a living body, in which a shape of at least a portion on a distal side is deformable, and whose inner surface before and after deformation is configured to be flat as a whole, a distal opening portion and a proximal opening portion which respectively communicate with the lumen, and a filter for capturing at least one or more of the capturing targets. The impeller holding unit includes an impeller which causes a fluid to flow from the distal opening portion toward the proximal opening portion inside the living body so as to allow the lumen to aspirate the capturing target together with the fluid.