Expandable Catheter Sheath for Low Profile Multi-Lumen Delivery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing catheters with multiple lumens have a high profile, making them challenging to deploy endoluminally, especially in difficult procedures, as they increase in size due to fixed lumen diameters, limiting their efficiency and accuracy in delivering fluids to multiple locations within the body.
Innovation Solution
A catheter assembly with an expandable sheath that transitions from a relaxed to a pressurized configuration, forming multiple fluid channels along its length, allowing for efficient delivery of fluids to various body lumens while maintaining a low profile, using a sheath with macroscopic apertures that occupy less than 20% of the surface area, attached to an elongated member at circumferential ends, enabling fluid delivery through pressurization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple fixed lumens are added to a catheter, then multi-channel fluid delivery capability is improved, but catheter profile increases
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter employs a dynamic lumen structure where the second lumen can expand from a compressed state during navigation to an expanded state for fluid delivery. This dynamic transformation allows the catheter to maintain a low profile during insertion while providing multi-channel capability when needed at the treatment site.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter design nests the second lumen within the first lumen when compressed, similar to nested dolls. The expandable second lumen is contained within the catheter body during navigation, allowing passage through small access vessels, then expands at the target location to provide additional fluid delivery channels.
2Length of moving object
If an expandable sheath is used as a secondary lumen, then catheter profile is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter utilizes a flexible expandable sheath made of compliant material that can transition between compressed and expanded states. This flexible shell structure provides the secondary lumen functionality while maintaining structural integrity, reducing the need for complex rigid mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The expandable sheath incorporates dynamic properties allowing it to change shape and volume in response to internal pressure or external forces, enabling the catheter to transition from a low-profile navigation state to a functional delivery state without complex mechanical actuators.
3Adaptability or versatility
If macroscopic apertures are added to the sheath, then fluid delivery to multiple locations is improved, but sheath structural integrity may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The sheath is designed with non-uniform properties, incorporating macroscopic apertures at specific locations where fluid delivery is needed while maintaining intact structure in other regions. This localized modification allows fluid egress at targeted sites without compromising the overall structural integrity of the sheath.
Solution Approach 2:
The sheath incorporates macroscopic apertures that function as controlled porous structures, allowing fluid passage while the surrounding sheath material maintains structural strength. The apertures are strategically positioned and sized to provide fluid delivery functionality without creating weak points that would compromise sheath integrity.
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 catheter assembly effectively delivers fluids to multiple locations within the body, such as the vasculature, with enhanced accuracy and efficiency, reducing the risk of adhesion and facilitating the deployment of implantable devices by maintaining a low profile and allowing for precise fluid distribution.
Implementation Method 1
the sheath comprises a wall thickness, an outer surface area, a first relaxed configuration and a second pressurized configuration
Data Source
AI summary
A multi lumen catheter assembly. The assembly provides an expandable, low profile, fixed length sheath and catheter, with fixed infusion ports. The assembly has an expandable outer sheath that expands upon pressure activation with a fluid and the sheath allows the fluid to exit from at least one predetermined fixed location from a distal end of the catheter assembly. The catheter assembly can be used in various medical device procedures, such as a TIPS (Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt) procedure, or anywhere a low profile, multi lumen, infusion catheter system is desired.