Guide Tool Elongate Arm Maneuvering Stimulation Elements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for delivering stimulation to treat sleep disordered breathing, such as obstructive sleep apnea, face challenges in accurately maneuvering stimulation elements through the vasculature due to anatomical complexities like lingual-valvous vessels, which can lead to increased procedural time and risk of error.
Innovation Solution
A guide tool with an elongate arm that enables accentuated palpation to identify topographic structures within the vasculature, allowing for precise positioning of stimulation elements adjacent to target tissues like the hypoglossal nerve, using a method that includes tilting and rotating the arm to navigate through vessels and valves.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If current methods are used to deliver stimulation through the vasculature, then therapy can be provided to treat sleep disordered breathing, but procedural time increases and risk of error increases due to difficulty in maneuvering stimulation elements through anatomical complexities like lingual-valvous vessels
Solution Approach 1:
A guide tool with an elongate arm is introduced as an intermediary device to facilitate the maneuvering of stimulation elements through the vasculature. The guide tool's elongate arm provides tactile feedback and mechanical guidance, enabling clinicians to navigate anatomical complexities such as lingual-valvous vessels more effectively, thereby reducing procedural time and improving placement accuracy.
2Ease of operation
If current methods are used to maneuver stimulation elements, then therapy delivery is possible, but risk of error increases due to inability to accurately feel and navigate through vasculature topography
Solution Approach 1:
The guide tool enables self-service navigation by providing accentuated palpation capabilities directly to the clinician. The elongate arm of the guide tool amplifies tactile feedback from the vasculature, allowing the clinician to independently feel and navigate topographic structures without requiring additional assistance or complex imaging guidance, thereby easing operation and reducing errors.
3Manufacturing precision
If stimulation elements are delivered without enhanced palpation capability, then procedure can be completed, but positioning precision adjacent to target tissues is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The guide tool implements local quality by concentrating tactile sensitivity and mechanical guidance capabilities at the distal end of the elongate arm, where it interacts with the vasculature. This localized enhancement of palpation capability provides precise positioning feedback without requiring the entire device to be complex, maintaining simplicity while achieving high positioning precision adjacent to target tissues like the hypoglossal nerve.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and/or method involving establishing, via a guide tool, a stimulation element in a first position within a first vessel of a vasculature which is in communication with a second vessel of the vasculature, identifying, via angularly positioning of an elongate arm relative to a distal elongate portion of the guide tool, an entry region into the second vessel from the first vessel, and maneuvering the stimulation element through the entry region and to a second position within the second vessel via the guide tool.