Fluid-Driven Catheter Articulation for Surgical Accuracy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current minimally invasive surgical technologies, such as robotic catheter systems, face challenges in accurately accessing and aligning with target tissues due to tortuous vasculature and constrained pathways, leading to potential trauma and inefficiencies in procedures like structural heart therapy, where tissue morphology can change significantly between diagnosis and treatment.
Innovation Solution
The development of advanced robotic systems that allow for precise control of elongate bodies like catheters through in situ robotic motion planning and catheter position control, using fluid-driven articulation systems and virtual models to navigate complex paths within the heart, enabling synchronized actuator drive signals for accurate tool placement and orientation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If robotic catheter systems are used to access target tissues through tortuous vasculature, then surgical accuracy is improved, but device complexity and capital equipment costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex mechanical robotic systems with a fluid-driven articulation system. Fluid pressure applied to balloons along the catheter body creates bending moments that articulate the catheter into desired shapes, eliminating the need for mechanical gantries, pull-wires, and electric motors while achieving comparable positioning accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses fluid pressure (pneumatics/hydraulics) to control catheter articulation. By applying pressure to selectively inflated balloons at different locations along the catheter, the system achieves precise control over catheter shape and position without requiring complex mechanical actuation systems
2Device complexity
If fluid-driven articulation systems are used to control catheter shape, then device complexity is reduced, but control precision over complex trajectories may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is divided into multiple articulated segments with independently controllable balloons. Each segment can be independently articulated by inflating specific balloons, allowing the catheter to follow complex trajectories through sequential segment-by-segment positioning rather than requiring whole-catheter manipulation
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts catheter shape by selectively inflating and deflating balloons in real-time. The articulation balloons can be inflated to bend, elongate, or stiffen specific segments, enabling adaptive control as the catheter navigates through changing anatomical pathways
3Object-affected harmful factors
If catheters are advanced along tortuous vasculature to reach target tissues, then minimally invasive access is achieved, but alignment accuracy with target tissue decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary motion planning by defining a desired tool path and calculating the necessary catheter articulation in advance. Virtual models simulate the catheter's movement along the planned trajectory, allowing verification and adjustment before actual advancement, ensuring accurate alignment when the catheter reaches the target
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from imaging systems (fluoroscopy, ultrasound, or 3D imaging) to monitor catheter position and adjust articulation in real-time. This closed-loop control ensures the catheter maintains alignment with the target tissue despite movements in the vasculature or tissue morphology changes
4Productivity
If in situ robotic motion planning is implemented for catheter movement, then procedural time is reduced, but system complexity and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates virtual models (copies) of the catheter and anatomical structures to simulate motion and plan trajectories computationally. These virtual models allow for rapid in situ motion planning and verification without requiring complex physical robotic manipulators, reducing system complexity while maintaining procedural efficiency
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 facilitates precise and safe movement of therapeutic tools within the heart, reducing trauma and procedural time by allowing real-time adjustment for changing tissue morphology and minimizing arrhythmias, while avoiding the need for complex robotic gantries or pull-wires.
Implementation Method 1
These articulation systems can direct pressure from a simple fluid source (such as a pre-pressurized canister) toward a subset of articulation balloons disposed along segment(s) of the catheter inside the patient so as to induce a desired change in shape
Data Source
AI summary
Devices, systems, and methods are provided for control over automated movement of catheters and other elongate bodies. Fluid and/or pull-wire drive systems can be used to provide robotically coordinated lateral bending motions and a processor of the system can generate synchronized actuator drive signals to move the tool along an at least partially laterally constrained path, with the path optionally extending along the axis of a virtual model of the catheter that has been driven in silico into alignment with a target tissue adjacent an open workspace such as an open chamber of the heart.