Expandable Heart Valve Stent Catheter for Precise Deployment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical technologies lack a minimally invasive and predictable method for transarterial implantation of expandable heart valve stents with attached prostheses, often requiring a heart-lung machine and being sensitive to surgeon skill, with risks of incorrect positioning and high costs.
Innovation Solution
A catheter system with a catheter tip and shaft, featuring moveable sleeve-shaped members and a guide wire, allows step-wise release and precise positioning of the stent at the implantation site, reducing the need for a heart-lung machine and enhancing maneuverability through complex vascular structures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional surgical methods are used for heart valve replacement, then the implantation can be performed with established techniques, but the procedure requires a heart-lung machine and involves major operative intervention with high patient stress
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter system is divided into multiple functional components: a catheter shaft for navigation, a catheter tip with expandable stent for valve replacement, and separate operating means for controlled deployment. This segmentation allows the complex implantation procedure to be broken down into manageable steps, reducing overall procedural complexity while maintaining reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter system acts as an intermediary device that delivers the heart valve prosthesis through the vascular system without requiring direct surgical access to the heart. This intermediate approach eliminates the need for a heart-lung machine and major open surgery, reducing patient stress while maintaining implantation reliability
2Ease of operation
If transarterial catheter insertion is used for minimally invasive heart valve implantation, then patient stress and operative complexity are reduced, but the method lacks predictability and requires high surgeon skill
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter system incorporates radiopaque markers and imaging capabilities that provide real-time feedback during the implantation procedure. This allows the operator to visually confirm catheter position and stent deployment, increasing predictability without requiring excessive surgeon skill or complex open surgery
Solution Approach 2:
The heart valve prosthesis is pre-mounted on the catheter tip in a compressed state before insertion. This preliminary preparation ensures that the prosthesis is correctly positioned and oriented before deployment, enhancing implantation predictability while maintaining the minimally invasive approach
3Ease of operation
If expandable stent systems are used for heart valve replacement, then the prosthesis can be deployed through catheter, but incorrect positioning cannot be corrected without extensive operative intervention
Solution Approach 1:
The stent is designed with dynamic properties that allow it to be expanded and contracted controllably during the procedure. This dynamic capability enables position adjustment after initial deployment but before final fixation, allowing correction of positioning errors without extensive re-intervention while maintaining the benefits of catheter-based delivery
4Reliability
If self-expanding or balloon-expanding stent systems are used, then the heart valve prosthesis can be attached to an anchoring support, but the implantation procedure becomes complicated, difficult and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter system merges the delivery mechanism and the expandable stent into a single integrated device. The catheter shaft and tip work together as a unified system for navigating and deploying the prosthesis, simplifying the overall implantation procedure while maintaining reliable anchoring of the heart valve replacement
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure relates to a catheter system for introducing a heart valve stent into the body of a patient. The catheter system includes a catheter tip having a seat portion for accommodating the stent in its collapsed state and a stent holder for releasably fixing the stent, wherein the seat portion is constituted by a first sleeve and a second sleeve, said sleeves being moveable relative to each other and relative to the stent holder, and a catheter shaft for connecting the catheter tip to a handle.