Hydrogel Strips on Delivery Balloon for Stent Microsliding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Stents may shift during balloon inflation due to independent expansion of segmented stents in vessels with varying cross-sections, leading to potential microsliding issues during delivery and inflation.
Innovation Solution
A stent delivery assembly with a delivery balloon featuring strips made of hydrogel, expandable foam, or elastomer materials that expand radially upon hydration, providing an elastic force to secure the stent in place by doubling in volume and matching the thickness of stent struts, thereby reducing microsliding risks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If segmented stents are used to allow independent expansion in vessels with varying cross-sections, then adaptability to vessel geometry is improved, but stent stability and position control deteriorate due to microsliding during delivery and inflation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces strips made of hydrogel, expandable foam, or elastomer materials as intermediary elements between the delivery balloon and the segmented stent. These strips react to deformation with elastic force and provide frictional resistance, acting as a mediator that prevents microsliding while allowing the segmented stent to expand independently in vessels with varying cross-sections.
Solution Approach 2:
The strips undergo parameter changes by transitioning from an unhydrated state to a hydrated state, where their volume increases and elastic properties change. This parameter change enables the strips to provide appropriate frictional force to prevent stent microsliding while accommodating the independent expansion of segmented stents.
2Stability of the object's composition
If strips made of expandable materials are added to the delivery balloon to prevent stent microsliding, then stent position stability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The strips are placed at specific locations on the delivery balloon surface where stent contact occurs. By providing frictional resistance only at these critical contact points rather than throughout the entire balloon, the solution improves stent position stability while minimizing the increase in overall device complexity.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the strips have sufficient thickness to match stent strut thickness for effective friction, then stent anchoring effectiveness is improved, but the collapsed profile of the delivery balloon increases
Solution Approach 1:
The strips are designed to be dynamic in their properties - thin and compliant in the collapsed state to maintain a small profile, and thick and elastic in the expanded/hydrated state to provide effective anchoring. This dynamic transformation allows the strips to satisfy both contradictory requirements at different stages of the procedure.
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 strips effectively prevent stent microsliding by exerting a radially outward force that secures the stent, ensuring stable expansion and deployment without detaching segments, even in vessels with varying cross-sections.
Implementation Method 1
The strips are made of a material that in the hydrated state reacts to deformation with an elastic force. For example, the material may be selected from a hydrogel, an expandable foam, or an expandable elastomer.
Implementation Method 2
the strips are made of a material that in the hydrated state reacts to deformation with an elastic force
Data Source
AI summary
A stent delivery assembly includes a delivery balloon defining a balloon axis, and a stent disposed around the delivery balloon. The stent has interconnected struts, and the delivery balloon has a balloon surface with a number of strips that are disposed on the balloon surface and extend along the balloon axis, the strips having an unhydrated state and a hydrated state, the strips having a smaller volume in the unhydrated state than in the hydrated state. For a stent composed of axially aligned segments connected via connectors disposed between adjacent ones of the segments, the strips have a length greater than an axial distance between axially outermost connectors connecting the adjacent ones of the segments.