Electrode Clamp Layout for Precise Electroporation Ablation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electroporation ablation therapies lack ease of navigation, placement, and safe energy delivery, particularly for cardiac arrhythmias, leading to unintended tissue damage.
Innovation Solution
A surgical clamp device with independently addressable electrodes configured to deliver pulsed electric fields for selective irreversible electroporation, minimizing damage to healthy tissue while targeting regions of interest.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If brief pulses of high voltage are applied to deliver electroporation therapy, then tissue ablation is achieved, but unintended tissue damage occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The surgical clamp device features multiple independently addressable electrodes arranged in specific patterns on opposing jaws. Each electrode can be selectively activated to create localized high electric fields only at the tissue-clamp interface, ensuring that electroporation effects are confined to the intended treatment zone while surrounding healthy tissue remains unaffected.
Solution Approach 2:
The surgical clamp acts as an intermediary device that physically compresses the tissue between its jaws, creating a controlled interface where electric fields are concentrated. This mechanical compression ensures consistent electrode-tissue contact and localized energy delivery, preventing unintended damage to adjacent structures.
2Productivity
If high electric fields are applied to achieve irreversible electroporation, then ablation of target tissue is effective, but navigation and placement of the device becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The electroporation device is segmented into multiple independently controllable electrode pairs distributed along the length of the surgical clamp. This segmentation allows the operator to activate only the electrode pairs at the distal tip when navigating through tissue, reducing interference during placement, while enabling activation of multiple segments simultaneously when performing ablation therapy.
Solution Approach 2:
The surgical clamp incorporates a flexible or articulating structure that allows dynamic adjustment of the electrode array configuration. This enables the device to navigate complex anatomical pathways in a compact state, then expand or reconfigure the electrode array once positioned, facilitating both easy navigation and effective ablation.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If energy delivery threshold is reduced for safer therapy, then collateral damage to healthy tissue decreases, but the ability to effectively ablate target tissue is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The surgical clamp device utilizes three-dimensional electrode arrangements with varying orientations (e.g., radial, longitudinal, and transverse electrode pairs). This multi-dimensional configuration allows the electric fields to converge precisely at the tissue-clamp interface, achieving high field intensities for effective ablation while the fields decay rapidly with distance, protecting surrounding healthy tissue.
Solution Approach 2:
The device delivers electroporation therapy using periodic pulsed voltage waveforms with controlled duration and interval. These periodic pulses allow cumulative electroporation effects to build up in the target tissue while permitting thermal dissipation and preventing excessive energy deposition in surrounding tissues, thereby maintaining both effectiveness and safety.
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
Enhances the safety and efficiency of electroporation therapy by reducing energy delivery thresholds, allowing precise ablation with reduced collateral damage.
Implementation Method 1
Application of brief, high DC voltages to tissue, thereby generating locally high electric fields typically in the range of hundreds of Volts/centimeter, can disrupt cell membranes by generating pores in the cell membrane. While the precise mechanism of this electrically-driven pore generation (or electroporation) is not well understood, it is thought that the application of relatively large electric fields generates instabilities in the lipid bilayers in cell membranes, causing the occurrence of a distribution of local gaps or pores in the membrane.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, devices, and methods for electroporation ablation therapy are disclosed, with the device including a first jaw including a plurality of first electrodes and a second jaw including a plurality of second electrodes. The first jaw and the second jaw may be substantially rigid, elongate, and collectively define a longitudinal axis. The first jaw and the second jaw may be configured to engage tissue therebetween during use.