Frameless Copper IUD with Flexible Retention Arm
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUDs) are often too large for younger women, leading to discomfort, side effects, and reduced effectiveness due to incompatibility with smaller uterine cavities, and traditional copper IUDs have limited effective copper surface area, affecting contraceptive efficacy.
Innovation Solution
A T- or Ω-shaped copper-releasing IUD with a frameless body and adaptable retention arm, featuring shorter, flexible copper cylinders that maximize effective copper surface area and allow easier insertion, with a design that accommodates smaller uterine cavities and includes additional retention mechanisms for postpartum use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional T-shaped IUDs with plastic frames are used, then the device structure is stable and easy to manufacture, but the device size is too large for younger women with smaller uterine cavities
Solution Approach 1:
The device is divided into two main segments: a frameless flexible stem consisting of copper elements and a separate retention arm. This segmentation allows the stem to be small and adaptable to smaller uterine cavities while the retention arm provides necessary stability for insertion and retention.
Solution Approach 2:
The retention arm is designed to be flexible and adaptable rather than rigid, allowing it to adjust to different uterine cavity sizes and shapes. This dynamic characteristic enables the same device to accommodate both younger women with smaller cavities and older women with larger cavities.
2Reliability
If the copper surface area is increased to improve contraceptive effectiveness, then the contraceptive efficacy improves, but the device size increases making it less tolerable
Solution Approach 1:
The device uses thin copper tubes and cylinders instead of bulky copper wire or large copper surfaces. These thin-walled copper structures provide high surface area to volume ratio, maximizing copper ion release while maintaining a compact device size that fits smaller uterine cavities.
Solution Approach 2:
The copper elements are arranged in three-dimensional space with hollow tubes and cylinders positioned to maximize surface area exposure to the uterine environment. The vertical stem contains multiple copper tubes stacked along the longitudinal axis, while the retention arm adds horizontal copper surface area, creating a multi-dimensional copper distribution that increases effectiveness without increasing overall device volume.
3Reliability
If the retention arm is made rigid for stable retention, then the device retention is improved, but the device causes more discomfort and side effects in younger women
Solution Approach 1:
The retention arm is designed with flexible properties that allow it to adapt to the uterine cavity shape and size. This flexibility reduces mechanical irritation and discomfort while maintaining adequate retention through the arm's ability to conform to the fundal region, thereby reducing expulsion risk without causing excessive side effects.
4Ease of manufacture
If conventional framed IUDs are used, then the manufacturing process is simple and cost-effective, but the effective copper surface area is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The device employs thin-walled copper tubes and cylinders that can be manufactured using standard tubular forming techniques. The hollow structure is created by drawing or extruding copper into thin-walled tubes, then assembling them along the flexible stem. This approach maintains manufacturing simplicity while dramatically increasing the effective copper surface area compared to solid copper wire wrapping.
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 design enhances tolerance and contraceptive effectiveness by increasing the effective copper surface area, improving comfort, and extending the device's lifespan, while reducing health risks associated with frequent replacements.
Implementation Method 1
The active part of the IUD consists only of copper elements... hollow copper tubes... hollow copper cylinders... maximize the release of copper in the upper part of the uterine cavity
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a new and improved hybrid " framed- frameless" copper-releasing contraceptive device (IUD) which is a combination of a plastic retention arm of reduced dimensions to adapt to uterine cavities of smaller size, particularly regarding their transverse width at the fundal level of the uterus, and of which the retention arm has a centrally located extension of varying length to be connected with hollow copper tubes which functions as the frameless stem of the IUD, and which consists of loosely connected hollow tubes, threaded on a length of suture, or a thin plastic or metallic stem, or a thin polymeric drug eluting stem, allowing release of copper ions, from the outside as well as from the inside of the tubes, in the uterine cavity thereby enhancing the contraceptive effect, and of which the bottom tube, is crimped onto the lower end of the stem, including a separate metallic ion-releasing fiber, holding all copper tubes together.