Expandable Bowel Device for Intestinal-Gastric Brake Activation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current treatments for obesity, including surgical and non-surgical methods, are either invasive, costly, or have limited efficacy and durability, failing to effectively address the global health burden of obesity and related conditions like diabetes.

Innovation Solution

The use of expandable medical devices placed within the bowel to distend specific areas, mimicking bowel obstruction and triggering the intestinal-gastric brake mechanism, which suppresses appetite without causing actual obstruction, allowing for weight loss and potentially reversing diabetes.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If surgical procedures (gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy) are used to treat obesity, then weight loss efficacy is improved, but invasiveness and associated complications increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveweight loss efficacyVSAvoidinvasiveness and complications

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an expandable device as an intermediary between surgery and conservative treatment. This device can be deployed endoscopically to create gastric distention and trigger the intestinal-gastric brake, providing surgical-level efficacy without the invasiveness of actual surgery. The device acts as a mediator that achieves weight loss through mechanical stimulation rather than anatomical alteration.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the mechanical surgical intervention (cutting, stapling, rerouting) with a mechanical stimulation approach. Instead of physically altering the gastrointestinal anatomy through surgery, the expandable device mechanically stimulates the intestinal-gastric brake mechanism to achieve similar weight loss outcomes with minimal invasiveness.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Object-affected harmful factors

If endoscopic barrier/liner devices are used to treat obesity, then invasiveness is reduced, but weight loss efficacy and durability decrease

Engineering Contradiction:

ImproveinvasivenessVSAvoidweight loss efficacy

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-affected harmful factorsVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent employs a dynamic expandable device that can transition between compressed and expanded states. This dynamic capability allows the device to be delivered minimally invasively in a compressed state, then expanded endoscopically to achieve the therapeutic effect. The device maintains expandability and adjustability to optimize weight loss efficacy while preserving low invasiveness.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

3Ease of operation

If intragastric balloons are used to create gastric distention, then satiety is improved, but device complexity and placement invasiveness increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesatiety inductionVSAvoidplacement procedure complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the essential function of intragastric balloons (gastric distention) and relocates it to the small intestine. By placing the expandable device in the small intestine rather than the stomach, the patent achieves satiety through intestinal-gastric brake stimulation with simpler placement procedures via oral or rectal delivery, avoiding the complexity of gastric balloon placement.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

4Reliability

If bariatric surgery is performed to achieve profound weight loss, then weight loss and diabetes resolution are improved, but cost and accessibility worsen

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveweight loss and diabetes resolutionVSAvoidcost and accessibility

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The patent employs a disposable or temporarily implantable expandable device that can be delivered endoscopically and removed or allowed to pass naturally after achieving therapeutic effect. This approach replaces expensive, permanently implantable surgical solutions with a more economical, temporary device that provides comparable weight loss and diabetes resolution efficacy at lower cost and with better accessibility.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #27Cheap short-living objects (Disposable)

Data Source

PatentUS10596021B2Obesity treatment devices, systems, and methods

Publication Date: 2020.03.24 GANZ BRAKE LLC

AI summary

Various devices, systems, and methods that can be used in the treatment of obesity and related illnesses are disclosed. In some instances, a portion of the bowel of an obese patient is distended for a therapeutically effective period. The distention may be achieved by introduction of an object that is of foreign origin relative to the body of the patient into the bowel of the patient. In some instances, the distention is achieved by a medical device that transitions from an undeployed state, in which the medical device is introduced into the bowel of the patient, to an expanded state in which the medical device distends the bowel by an amount sufficient to trigger an intestinal-gastric brake in the patient.