Guidewire Shapeable Tips with Bypass Cuts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Guidewire devices face challenges in balancing torquability and shapeability, as increased friction in vasculature hinders torque transmission to the distal tip, and existing designs often lose their shaped configuration due to resilient forces from superelastic tubes.
Innovation Solution
A guidewire device with a core and a tube structure featuring bypass cuts and a coil, where the tube structure includes a cut pattern that enhances flexibility and maintains a shaped distal tip by minimizing resilient forces, allowing effective torque transmission and shape retention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Force
If a superelastic tube structure is used to provide flexibility and torque transmission, then torquability is improved, but the shapeability of the distal tip deteriorates due to resilient forces disrupting the shaped configuration
Solution Approach 1:
The tube structure is segmented through bypass cuts that divide the continuous tube into sections connected by beams and rings. This segmentation reduces the tube's resilient forces while maintaining torque transmission capability, allowing the distal tip to maintain its shaped configuration without being disrupted by strong elastic recovery forces from the tube.
Solution Approach 2:
The tube structure has varying properties along its length, with the distal section having reduced stiffness due to bypass cuts to accommodate tip shaping, while proximal sections maintain sufficient stiffness for torque transmission. The cut pattern creates local variations in flexibility and torque transmission characteristics to balance these competing requirements.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the guidewire is made more flexible to navigate tortuous vasculature, then adaptability is improved, but torque transmission capability deteriorates due to increased friction and bending
Solution Approach 1:
The tube is divided into multiple sections by bypass cuts, creating a structure that can bend and adapt to tortuous vasculature while maintaining torque transmission through the remaining beam and ring structures. The segmented design allows localized flexibility without compromising overall torque transmission.
Solution Approach 2:
The guidewire combines a superelastic tube material with a core wire, creating a composite structure that leverages the flexibility of the superelastic material while the core wire provides torque transmission. The bypass cuts in the tube allow the composite structure to navigate tortuous paths while maintaining mechanical coupling for torque transmission.
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 device achieves improved navigation by enabling the transmission of torsional forces to the shaped distal tip, maintaining its configuration throughout procedures, and adapting to varying anatomical paths without losing shape due to elastic recovery forces.
Implementation Method 1
The tube structure includes a plurality of bypass cuts formed tangentially within the tube structure to increase the flexibility of the tube structure
Implementation Method 2
A coil is disposed within the tube structure so as to be positioned between an outer surface of the distal section of the core and an inner surface of the tube structure
Implementation Method 3
Such tubes are formed from a superelastic material such as nitinol so as to provide desired torque transmission characteristics in addition to providing good levels of flexibility
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to guidewire devices having shapeable tips and effective torquability. A guidewire device includes a core having a proximal section and a tapered distal section. A tube structure is coupled to the core such that the tapered distal section extends into the tube structure. The tube structure includes a plurality of bypass cuts formed tangentially within the tube structure to increase the flexibility of the tube structure and to reduce the tendency of resilient forces from the tube structure to disrupt a shaped distal tip of the guidewire device.