Guide Catheter Venting Structure for Pressure-Equalized Implant Delivery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing guide catheters create negative pressure within the lumen when advancing prosthetic implant delivery apparatuses, leading to increased push forces and potential air retention, which complicates the implantation process and can result in hemostasis issues.
Innovation Solution
The guide catheters are designed with through-holes or channels in the shaft, allowing pressure equalization and air release, reducing push forces and maintaining hemostasis during implant delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a guide catheter is used to introduce and guide the delivery apparatus, then the implant delivery apparatus can be successfully introduced into the vasculature and guided to the target site, but negative pressure is created within the lumen leading to increased push forces and potential air retention
Solution Approach 1:
The guide catheter shaft is segmented with multiple through-holes distributed along its length, allowing pressure equalization at multiple locations rather than requiring a single opening, thereby reducing negative pressure buildup while maintaining guidance functionality
Solution Approach 2:
Through-holes in the guide catheter shaft act as intermediaries to equalize pressure between the lumen and surrounding tissue, preventing negative pressure accumulation that would otherwise increase push forces required by the operator
2Reliability
If the guide catheter shaft is made solid and sealed, then structural integrity and guidance are maintained, but air and fluid pressure cannot be equalized leading to hemostasis issues
Solution Approach 1:
The guide catheter shaft transitions from a completely sealed structure to a locally perforated structure, where through-holes are strategically positioned at specific locations along the shaft to enable pressure equalization only where needed, maintaining overall structural integrity while allowing localized pressure balance
Solution Approach 2:
The guide catheter shaft incorporates through-holes that create a porous-like structure, allowing air and fluid pressure to equalize between the lumen and surrounding tissue, thereby preventing hemostasis issues while maintaining the catheter's structural function
3Force
If through-holes are added to the guide catheter shaft, then pressure equalization and air release are enabled reducing push forces, but the shaft structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than completely redesigning the catheter shaft structure, through-holes are added as a partial modification to the existing shaft design, providing sufficient pressure equalization functionality without requiring a complete structural overhaul, thus minimizing increase in device complexity
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 solution effectively reduces user-operated push forces and ensures efficient air release, enhancing the operability and safety of prosthetic implant delivery systems.
Implementation Method 1
one or more through-holes or channels that extend between the main lumen and an exterior of the guide catheter
Implementation Method 2
reducing push forces and maintaining hemostasis during implant delivery
Data Source
AI summary
Devices and methods for equalizing pressure in a main lumen of a guide sheath shaft are disclosed. As one example, a delivery apparatus can include a handle and a shaft extending within and distally from the handle. The shaft has a main lumen, and a distal end portion of the shaft includes one or more holes that extend through a wall of the shaft, between the main lumen and an exterior of the shaft. The one or more holes are spaced axially away from a distal end of the shaft.