Guidewire Core Wire Locking Element
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical guidewires face challenges in maintaining navigability through tortuous vasculature while ensuring adequate tensile strength, and they often suffer from unintended separation of components during shaping, which can lead to adverse interactions with patient tissue.
Innovation Solution
The guidewire design incorporates a core wire and an elongated member with a distal section featuring openings to enhance bending flexibility without compromising tensile strength. Additionally, a locking element is affixed to both the core wire and the elongated member to inhibit unintended movement and secure fractured portions, ensuring safe removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the distal section of the elongated member is made more flexible to improve navigability through tortuous vasculature, then bending flexibility is improved, but tensile strength may be reduced below the threshold for safe navigation
Solution Approach 1:
The elongated member is segmented with multiple openings disposed along its length, dividing the continuous wall structure into sections. This segmentation allows the distal section to bend more easily while the proximal section maintains structural integrity and tensile strength, resolving the contradiction between flexibility and strength requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The openings are localized specifically in the distal section of the elongated member rather than being distributed uniformly. This local modification provides enhanced bending flexibility where needed for navigability while preserving the tensile strength of the proximal section, allowing different parts of the same component to have different mechanical properties.
2Strength
If the core wire is made more rigid to maintain tensile strength, then strength is improved, but the overall navigability through complex vasculature is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The elongated member with openings acts as a flexible sheath that can bend independently of the core wire. This allows the core wire to maintain its rigidity and tensile strength while the segmented elongated member provides the necessary flexibility for navigation, enabling the system to achieve both strength and navigability simultaneously.
3Reliability
If locking elements are added to prevent unintended separation of components, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The locking element combines multiple functions into a single component: it secures the core wire to the elongated member, prevents unintended separation, and provides a retrieval mechanism. By merging these functions into one integrated element rather than using separate components, the design improves reliability while minimizing the increase in device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A guidewire comprising: a core wire; an elongated member extending along a longitudinal axis and defining: an inner surface defining an inner lumen, a plurality of openings disposed along the elongated member, each opening extending from an outer surface of the elongated member towards the inner surface, a first locking recess extending through the elongated member from the outer surface to the inner surface, a second locking recess extending from the inner surface towards a second location on the outer surface, wherein the first locking recess and the second locking recess defines a locking channel; and a locking element disposed within the locking channel and affixed to the elongated member, the locking element defining an aperture configured to receive the core wire, wherein the locking element is configured to inhibit unintended proximal movement of the core wire along the longitudinal axis relative to the elongated member.