External Steerable Fiber for Tortuous Vascular Implant Deployment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Endoluminal delivery and deployment of expandable endoluminal devices, such as stent grafts, are challenging due to their need to navigate through tortuous vasculature, particularly the aortic arch, requiring systems that facilitate navigation and precise positioning at treatment sites.
Innovation Solution
A catheter assembly with flexible sleeves and steering lines that constrain and guide expandable implants, allowing selective axial and rotational positioning before full deployment, enabling the implant to conform to vascular curvatures and accurately position within the vasculature.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If the endoluminal device is constrained in a small delivery diameter to allow insertion into the vasculature, then the device can be delivered through narrow vessels, but the device becomes difficult to navigate through vasculature with significant bending or curvature
Solution Approach 1:
The endoluminal device is divided into multiple expandable segments that can be independently controlled. Each segment can be selectively expanded or constrained, allowing the device to navigate through tortuous vasculature in a compressed state while enabling precise positioning and conforming to vascular curvatures after deployment. The segmentation allows the device to adapt its configuration along the vascular pathway.
Solution Approach 2:
The device incorporates dynamic reconfigurability through selective expansion of segments along its length. The device transitions from a compressed, navigable state during delivery to an expanded, functional state at the treatment site. This dynamic transformation is controlled by expanding specific segments while maintaining others in a constrained state, enabling the device to adapt to the specific anatomical requirements of the vascular pathway.
2Reliability
If the endoluminal device is expanded to its maximal functional diameter to achieve therapeutic outcome, then the device provides adequate lumen area and structural support, but the device cannot be inserted into the vasculature through small access sites
Solution Approach 1:
The device is segmented into multiple independently controllable sections that can be selectively expanded. During delivery, all segments remain compressed to a small diameter for insertion through narrow vessels. At the treatment site, specific segments are selectively expanded to their functional diameter while others remain compressed, enabling the device to achieve therapeutic functionality without requiring the entire device to be large for delivery.
Solution Approach 2:
The device employs a nested configuration where compressed segments are contained within the compressed profile of adjacent segments. This nesting allows multiple segments to occupy a compact space during delivery, enabling the entire device to pass through small access sites. After deployment, the nested segments are selectively expanded to their full functional diameter to provide the required therapeutic lumen area and structural support.
3Device complexity
If the device is designed to be self-expanding to eliminate the need for a separate expansion mechanism, then the deployment process is simplified, but precise control over expansion timing and location becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The self-expanding device is segmented with each segment containing its own expansion mechanism. This segmentation allows selective activation of specific segments while keeping others compressed. The expansion control is achieved through the segmented architecture where forces applied to one segment do not automatically expand other segments, enabling precise control over expansion timing and location despite the self-expanding nature of the device.
Solution Approach 2:
Each segment of the device has different mechanical properties and expansion characteristics tailored to its specific function. The local quality of each segment allows selective expansion based on the specific therapeutic requirements at different locations along the vascular pathway. This localized differentiation enables precise control over which segments expand and when, while maintaining the overall self-expanding characteristic of the device.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure describes treatment of the vasculature of a patient with an expandable implant. The implant is constrained to a reduced delivery diameter for delivery within the vasculature by at least one sleeve. The implant can be constrained to other diameters, such as an intermediate diameter. The sleeves can be expanded, allowing for expansion of the diameter of the expandable implant, by disengaging a coupling member from the sleeve or sleeves from outside of the body of the patient. The expandable implant can comprise a steering line or lines which facilitate bending and steering of the expandable implant through the vasculature of a patient.