Prosthetic Heart Valve Suture-Controlled Stent Repositioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional delivery devices for collapsible prosthetic heart valves face challenges in accurately positioning and stabilizing self-expanding valves, leading to potential misplacement and paravalvular leakage, which requires invasive surgery for correction.
Innovation Solution
A heart prosthesis system featuring a collapsible and expandable stent with aortic and annulus ends, and a plurality of circumferentially arranged openings, where sutures are threaded through these openings to control the stent's diameter, allowing for precise positioning and repositioning of the valve by applying tension to collapse and expand the stent.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If self-expanding stent is used for prosthetic heart valve, then ease of deployment is improved, but positioning accuracy deteriorates causing valve jump or repositioning
Solution Approach 1:
The stent is designed with dynamic expandability through sutures that can be tensioned or relaxed. The sutures threaded through apical cells allow the stent to transition between collapsed and expanded states controllably, enabling accurate positioning before final deployment and preventing unwanted valve jump while maintaining ease of operation
Solution Approach 2:
The stent's diameter parameter is made variable through the suture mechanism. By adjusting suture tension, the stent diameter can be precisely controlled during positioning, then fully expanded for final deployment. This parameter control resolves the contradiction between easy deployment and positioning accuracy
2Device complexity
If conventional delivery device is used, then device simplicity is maintained, but deployment reliability deteriorates due to difficult positioning and anchoring
Solution Approach 1:
The stent is segmented into apical cells with integrated suture holes, allowing the suture mechanism to be incorporated directly into the stent structure. This segmentation enables reliable positioning and anchoring without requiring a complex external delivery device, maintaining device simplicity while improving deployment reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The suture acts as an intermediary mechanism between the operator and the stent deployment process. By threading sutures through specific apical cells, the operator can controllably expand and position the stent, improving deployment reliability while keeping the overall system relatively simple
3Loss of time
If full deployment is performed immediately, then treatment time is reduced, but ability to correct positioning errors deteriorates requiring invasive surgery
Solution Approach 1:
The stent is partially expanded in advance using the suture mechanism before final deployment. This preliminary action allows positioning verification and correction without full commitment to deployment, enabling error correction without invasive surgery while minimizing treatment time through efficient sequential steps
Solution Approach 2:
The dynamic suture mechanism allows reversible adjustment of stent expansion. If positioning is incorrect, the sutures can be relaxed to collapse the stent for repositioning. This dynamic capability enables correction of positioning errors without invasive surgery while maintaining efficient treatment flow
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
Enables accurate deployment and repositioning of the prosthetic heart valve, reducing the risk of paravalvular leakage and invasive surgery by allowing for controlled expansion and contraction of the stent, facilitating safer and more precise implantation.
Implementation Method 1
tension applied to the length of suture in a direction away from the stent may collapse the aortic end of the stent from the first diameter to a second diameter less than the first diameter
Data Source
AI summary
A heart prosthesis system may include a prosthetic heart valve and a length of suture. The prosthetic heart valve may include a collapsible and expandable stent and a valve assembly mounted within the stent. The stent may have an aortic end, an annulus end, and a plurality of openings arranged circumferentially around the aortic end, the aortic end having a first diameter in an expanded condition. The length of suture may be threaded through the openings such that tension applied to the length of suture in a direction away from the stent may collapse the aortic end of the stent from the first diameter to a second diameter less than the first diameter.