Expandable Tip Retrieval Catheter for Thrombus Capture
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current retrieval devices face challenges in retaining captured foreign bodies or thrombi within the catheter during endovascular procedures due to the narrower diameter of the guide catheter, leading to potential embolization risks.
Innovation Solution
The development of retrieval catheters with expandable tips that transition from a smaller to a larger size and shape, allowing for effective capture and removal of thrombi or foreign bodies, including inflatable tips and self-expanding members that expand when unrestrained, facilitating the retrieval of materials larger than the catheter's inner diameter.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a retrieval device is introduced through a guide catheter with narrower diameter, then the device can be positioned within the blood vessel, but the captured foreign body or thrombus cannot be retained within the catheter during retrieval
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter tip is designed to dynamically change its cross-sectional dimension from a first dimension when collapsed to a second, larger dimension when expanded. This dynamic transformation allows the catheter to accommodate larger captured objects during retrieval while maintaining a compact profile during navigation through the vasculature.
Solution Approach 2:
The expandable tip structure allows the catheter to nest within itself or within the guide catheter in its collapsed state, then expand to provide a larger retention space for captured foreign bodies or thrombi during the retrieval process.
2Productivity
If the catheter maintains a constant small diameter, then it can navigate through blood vessels easily, but it cannot retrieve materials larger than its inner diameter
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter employs a dynamic tip structure that can transition between collapsed and expanded states. During navigation, the tip remains collapsed to facilitate easy passage through blood vessels. When retrieval is required, the tip expands to provide sufficient lumen diameter for capturing and retrieving larger materials such as thrombi or foreign bodies.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter is divided into functional segments: a flexible shaft for navigation and an expandable tip for retrieval. This segmentation allows each portion to optimize its function independently - the shaft maintains constant dimensions for navigation while the tip provides variable dimensions for retrieval based on material size requirements.
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 expandable tips enable the successful capture and removal of larger materials, reducing the risk of embolization and improving the efficiency of thrombectomy procedures by creating a pathway for effective material retrieval.
Implementation Method 1
an inflatable tip disposed at a distal end of the elongate shaft, the inflatable tip extending distally of the distal end and forming a tip lumen distally of the distal end; wherein, in a first, unexpanded state, the tip lumen has a first cross-sectional dimension; wherein, in a second, expanded state, the tip lumen has a second cross-sectional dimension greater than the first cross-sectional dimension
Implementation Method 2
a distal end comprising a self-expanding member that expands from a collapsed state to an expanded state when unrestrained, the member extending distally of the distal end and forming a tip lumen distally of the distal end
Implementation Method 3
a cover over an outer surface of the self-expanding member that retains the member in the collapsed state, the cover being at least partially dissolvable when activated, wherein the self-expanding member is configured to expand to the expanded state when the cover is at least partially dissolved
Implementation Method 4
receiving the object into the shaft lumen through the tip lumen
Data Source
AI summary
Catheters of the present disclosure include a catheter shaft and an expandable tip, which can retrieve materials slightly larger than an inner diameter of the catheter shaft. The tip may be expandable such that it can easily transform from a first size and shape to a second size and shape to aid in the retrieval of the materials (i.e., the thrombus, embolus, or foreign body). Catheter tips may be expanded by inflation, removal of a constraining member, or an input such as heat, light, or electrical energy.