Delivery Shaft Core Members for Curved Artery Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current treatment apparatuses, such as delivery catheters, face challenges in usability when deploying stent grafts in curved arteries, as they tend to kink or deform, leading to inadequate placement and reduced effectiveness in maintaining lumen expansion and preventing aneurysm rupture.
Innovation Solution
The treatment apparatus features a delivery shaft with isotropically disposed core members having plastic deformability, a covering layer, and a reinforcing layer with slits, which allows for advanced shaping to match the artery's curvature, reducing kinking and deformation, and enhancing the catheter's ability to hold and deploy stent grafts effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the delivery shaft is made flexible to navigate curved arteries, then the catheter can be inserted into curved arteries, but the delivery shaft tends to kink and deform, leading to inadequate stent graft placement
Solution Approach 1:
The delivery shaft is segmented into multiple core members (typically 3-7) arranged radially within the lumen. Each core member is a separate element that can independently deform, allowing the shaft to navigate curves while maintaining overall structural integrity and preventing kinking of the lumen.
Solution Approach 2:
The delivery shaft employs a composite structure combining multiple core members with different material properties. The core members are made of plastic-deformable materials that allow permanent shaping, while the surrounding tube-shaped member provides structural support. This composite design enables both flexibility for navigation and shape stability for accurate stent graft placement.
2Stability of the object's composition
If core members are made rigid to maintain lumen shape, then the delivery shaft maintains its shape, but it becomes difficult to reform the catheter to match artery curvature
Solution Approach 1:
The core members are designed with specific plastic deformability parameters that allow permanent shape change through controlled deformation. This enables the delivery shaft to be pre-formed into various curvatures to match different arterial paths while maintaining lumen shape stability during insertion and deployment.
Solution Approach 2:
The core members are pre-deformed into the desired curvature configuration before catheter assembly. This preliminary shaping allows the delivery shaft to naturally conform to the artery's curvature during insertion, reducing the need for manipulation during the procedure while maintaining stable lumen geometry.
3Reliability
If multiple core members are disposed isotropically to prevent kinking, then the delivery shaft resists kinking, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The core members are strategically positioned at specific radial locations within the lumen cross-section, creating localized support zones. This isotropic distribution provides uniform resistance to kinking forces from all directions while using the minimum necessary number of core members (typically 3-7), balancing reliability with device simplicity.
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
This configuration improves usability by maintaining the stent graft's shape in accordance with the artery's curvature, ensuring accurate placement, reducing the risk of kinking, and enhancing the catheter's ability to maintain lumen expansion and prevent aneurysm rupture.
Implementation Method 1
The plurality of core members extend in the axial direction inside the tube-shaped member at least in the tip end region, and have plastic deformability
Implementation Method 2
The covering layer and at least one of the plurality of core members are in contact with each other
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2(A)~2(B)
Figure 3(A)~3(B)
AI summary
Provided is a treatment apparatus that makes it possible to improve usability in treatment. A treatment apparatus 4 includes a catheter 1 that includes a delivery shaft 11. The delivery shaft 11 extends in an axial direction (a Z-axis direction) and is configured to hold, in a tip end region A1, a stent graft 2 having a reduced diameter. The delivery shaft 11 includes a tube-shaped member 110 that includes one or a plurality of lumens (one or a plurality of lumens L) provided in the axial direction, and a plurality of core members (core members 112a to 112d) that extend in the axial direction inside the tube-shaped member 110 at least in the tip end region A1, and have plastic deformability. The plurality of core members are disposed substantially isotropically in an outer circumferential direction R1 of the lumen L inside the tube-shaped member 110.