Fluid-Driven Balloon Catheter Articulation Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current catheter articulation systems face challenges in maintaining accurate control over flexible bodies due to hysteresis and friction, leading to unpredictable behavior and inconsistent bending, especially in complex anatomical pathways, which complicates the precise alignment and deployment of therapeutic tools within the body.
Innovation Solution
The use of fluid-driven balloon arrays and actuators along multi-lumen shafts to improve the articulation behavior of catheters and other flexible structures, providing uniform curvature and precise control by distributing bending forces along the segment, allowing for more predictable and repeatable motion without the need for large deployment forces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional catheter articulation systems are used, then the catheter can navigate body lumens, but hysteresis and friction cause unpredictable behavior and inconsistent bending
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is divided into multiple articulated segments that can be independently controlled. Each segment contains bending actuators that allow precise control over the catheter's shape and orientation, eliminating the unpredictable behavior caused by traditional friction-based articulation systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical friction-based articulation with a fluid-driven or shape memory alloy-based actuation system. This substitution eliminates hysteresis and friction effects, providing predictable and repeatable catheter behavior while maintaining navigability through body lumens.
2Measurement precision
If fluid-driven balloon actuators are used to articulate the catheter, then control precision is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The articulated catheter segments are designed to perform multiple functions: navigation through tortuous pathways, positioning of therapeutic tools, and deployment of medical devices. By integrating these functions into a single articulated structure, the patent reduces overall system complexity while maintaining high positioning precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter employs a nested structure where articulated segments are contained within the catheter body, and therapeutic tools are nested within the articulated segments. This compact nesting arrangement minimizes device complexity while enabling precise control and positioning capabilities.
3Force
If large deployment forces are applied to move the sheath, then the sheath can be displaced, but tissue trauma increases
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter system employs dynamic control of sheath displacement through articulated segments that can gradually navigate the sheath along the catheter body. This dynamic, incremental approach reduces the peak force required compared to traditional single-step displacement methods, thereby minimizing tissue trauma while achieving complete sheath removal.
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 solution enhances the control and predictability of catheter movement, enabling more precise alignment and deployment of therapeutic tools within the body, reducing tissue trauma and improving the effectiveness of minimally invasive procedures.
Implementation Method 1
A fluid-driven actuator (optionally in the form of balloons) to (among other uses) axially displace a sheath from over a tool mounted on the end of a catheter
Implementation Method 2
selectively actuating, bending, or otherwise altering the bend characteristics of catheters and other elongate flexible bodies
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 1-1~2
Figure 3~4B
AI summary
Catheter-supported therapeutic and diagnostic tools can be introduced into a patient body with a sheath slidably disposed over the tool. Once the tool is aligned with a target tissue, a fluid-driven actuator can move the sheath axially from over the tool, for example, to allow a stent, stent-graft, prosthetic valve, or the like to expand radially within the cardiovascular system, without having to transmit large deployment forces along the catheter shaft and sheath from outside the patient. Well-behaved articulation structures will often include simple balloon arrays, with inflation of the balloons interacting with elongate skeletal support structures so as to improve articulation behavior of the skeleton. The array can be used to improve uniformity of bending along a segment of a flexible body such as a catheter. The articulation improvement structures can be employed in minimally invasive medical catheter systems, and also for industrial continuum robotics, for supporting imaging systems, for entertainment and consumer products, and the like.