Embolic Protection Filter with Biofixation Seal
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current embolic protection devices often fail to completely open within blood vessels, leaving gaps that allow blood clots and thrombi to bypass the filter, compromising downstream blood flow during procedures like carotid angioplasty.
Innovation Solution
An embolic protection device with a filtering body featuring a lip and tail, connected by a frame, and including openings that allow fluid flow while trapping emboli, along with a biofixation material like extracellular matrix to ensure a seal with the vessel wall, and a retrieval system to collect emboli effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If filter devices are expanded to increase filter area for capturing emboli, then embolic protection capability is improved, but the device may fail to completely open within the blood vessel, leaving gaps that permit unoccluded blood flow
Solution Approach 1:
The filtering body is divided into multiple segments or struts that can independently expand and conform to the vessel wall, ensuring complete contact and eliminating gaps while maintaining high filtration capability
Solution Approach 2:
The filter device incorporates varying structural properties at different locations, with enhanced support structures at critical areas to ensure complete expansion and sealing against the vessel wall, while maintaining high filtration area in other regions
2Reliability
If the filter area is increased to capture more emboli, then trapping volume is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The filter employs a nested or hierarchical structure where smaller filtration elements are arranged within a larger framework, maximizing trapping volume within the available space while maintaining structural simplicity and ease of deployment
Solution Approach 2:
The filter uses flexible thin-walled structures that can expand to maximize surface area for emboli capture, while the thin-walled design keeps the overall device complexity and material usage low
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 effectively captures emboli, minimizing the risk of downstream blockages and ensuring unobstructed blood flow by maximizing the filter's expansion and trapping volume, while the biofixation material enhances the seal and reduces the risk of emboli bypass.
Implementation Method 1
The filtering body includes first and second openings formed therethrough, the first opening having a first area for maintaining fluid flowpaths through the device, the second opening having a second area for filtering emboli in the body vessel
Implementation Method 2
a biofixation material like extracellular matrix to ensure a seal with the vessel wall
Data Source
AI summary
An embolic protection device for deployment in a body vessel is provided, including a filtering body having a lip and extending therefrom to a tail and a frame connected to the lip for supporting the filtering body. The filtering body includes first and second openings formed therethrough, the first opening having a first area for maintaining fluid flowpaths through the device, the second opening having a second area for filtering emboli in the body vessel. The first area is greater than the second area.