Inside-Out Flipped Electrospun Preform for Heart Valve Strain Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for creating artificial heart valves struggle to produce complex shapes with uniform fiber distribution and thickness, leading to issues like bridging and increased strains during diastole, which affect the valve's performance and durability.
Innovation Solution
The method involves electrospinning a preform around a mandrel, then flipping it inside out to reverse the surface orientations, creating a preform with a concave outer surface and a convex inner surface, which reduces strain and improves the valve's natural closed position, thereby enhancing performance and durability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If conventional electrospinning is used to create a cylindrical preform, then the fiber alignment is uniform, but the valve naturally remains in an open position causing increased strains during diastole
Solution Approach 1:
The preform is inverted inside-out after electrospinning, reversing the fiber orientation so that the inner surface becomes the outer surface and vice versa. This inversion transforms the naturally open-positioned valve into a normally closed valve, reducing strains during diastole while preserving the uniform fiber alignment特性.
2Reliability
If special suture techniques or annealing are used to create a normally closed valve, then the valve performance improves, but the material distribution within the leaflet remains unchanged and stresses during diastole are not decreased
Solution Approach 1:
By inverting the preform inside-out, the invention fundamentally changes the material distribution and fiber orientation in the leaflet. This structural transformation directly reduces the stresses occurring during diastole, unlike conventional suture or annealing techniques that leave material distribution unchanged.
3Shape
If the electrospinning target geometry is deviated from a perfect cylinder, then complex shapes can be created, but charge concentrations occur causing non-uniform fiber distribution and bridging
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses a cylindrical mandrel to create a uniform cylindrical preform, avoiding charge concentration issues. After electrospinning, the preform is inverted inside-out to achieve the desired complex shape with concave outer surface and convex inner surface. This two-step approach separates the uniform fiber deposition step from the shape formation step, solving both contradictions simultaneously.
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
This approach results in a heart valve with reduced deformation and stress during closure, improving durability and maintaining a more natural closed position without the need for additional post-processing steps like annealing or suturing, while allowing for the creation of complex geometries with uniform thickness distribution.
Implementation Method 1
Electrospinning is a fiber production method which uses electric force to draw charged threads of polymer solutions or polymer melts up to fiber diameters in the order of some hundred nanometers. The electric charge creates the force by which the fiber jet is attracted to the target.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of making a medical implant is provided by electrospinning a polymer solution to form a preform around a mandrel. The formed preform distinguishes an inner surface and an outer surface. The formed preform is removed from the mandrel and flipped inside-out resulting in the inner surface of the formed preform becoming the outer surface of the inside-out flipped preform, and the outer surface of the formed preform becoming the inner surface of the inside-out flipped preform. At least part of the inside-out flipped preform forms the medical implant such as e.g. an artificial heart valve, an artificial leaflet, an artificial graft, or an artificial vessel. The products made according to the method of this invention greatly improve the performance and durability of the medical implant.