Gallbladder Implant with Blocking and Filter Portions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current treatments for gallstones often require invasive procedures and fail to prevent occlusion of the biliary tree, leading to complications such as cholecystitis, pancreatitis, or obstructive jaundice, and do not effectively manage asymptomatic gallstones.
Innovation Solution
A filter device is implanted in the gallbladder with a blocking portion to push gallstones away from the opening and a filter portion to prevent stones of a certain size from exiting, while anchoring to prevent migration and allowing normal bile flow, made from materials like metals, shape memory alloys, or polymers, and optionally eluting pharmaceuticals to prevent biofilm growth.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a filter device is implanted to prevent gallstones from exiting the gallbladder, then gallstone-induced complications are reduced, but the device may migrate or displace from its implantation site
Solution Approach 1:
The filter device is divided into functionally distinct segments: a blocking portion for preventing gallstone exit, a filter portion for filtering stones, and an anchoring portion for securing the device. This segmentation allows each component to optimize its specific function while working together as an integrated system, resolving the contradiction between prevention efficacy and positional stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The anchoring portion is designed to be deployed first to secure the device in place before the blocking and filter portions are activated. This preliminary anchoring action ensures the device remains stable during subsequent operations and throughout its functional life, preventing migration while maintaining gallstone prevention capability.
2Reliability
If the filter device blocks the gallbladder opening to prevent stone exit, then gallstone complications are prevented, but bile flow may be obstructed
Solution Approach 1:
The filter portion features a mesh structure with specifically engineered pore sizes that are small enough to block gallstones (≥3mm) but large enough to permit free passage of bile. This local quality differentiation at the mesh level resolves the contradiction by allowing selective passage: stones are blocked while bile flows unobstructed through the same structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The filter portion utilizes a porous mesh structure that provides size-based filtration. The porosity is carefully controlled to create openings that physically block gallstones while maintaining sufficient total open area for unrestricted bile flow, thus preventing stone complications without causing bile obstruction.
3Reliability
If the blocking portion is positioned distally from the gallbladder opening to push stones away, then stone migration is prevented, but the device may exert radial force on the gallbladder wall
Solution Approach 1:
The harmful radial force effect is extracted and eliminated from the device design. The blocking portion is specifically engineered to push stones away through axial force only, with no radial expansion or wall-contacting features. This extraction of the harmful radial force component allows stone migration prevention while avoiding gallbladder wall stress.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of the blocking portion expanding radially against the wall to prevent stone migration (which would cause wall stress), the design inverts the mechanism: the blocking portion remains non-expansive and prevents migration by positioning and axial action only, reversing the conventional approach of radial expansion for mechanical constraint.
4Stability of the object's composition
If an anchoring portion is added to prevent device migration, then device stability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The anchoring portion is merged with the blocking and filter portions into a single integrated device structure. All three functional components (anchoring, blocking, and filtering) are combined in one device that can be deployed simultaneously through a single catheter, reducing procedural complexity while maintaining position stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The anchoring portion serves multiple functions: it secures the device in place, provides a reference for deploying other components, and works in conjunction with the blocking and filter portions. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate devices or procedures, thereby reducing overall complexity while achieving stable positioning.
Data Source
AI summary
A filter device for implantation in a gallbladder, comprising: a filter portion configured to filter gallstones of a certain minimum size to prevent them from exiting the gallbladder through an opening of the gallbladder; a blocking portion configured to push gallstones of a certain minimum size away from an opening of the gallbladder where the blocking portion is located distally from the filter portion with respect to the opening of the gallbladder; and, where the blocking portion and the filter portion do not attach to, or apply expansive radial force on, a wall of the gallbladder.