Intraluminal Flow Managing Mechanism for Temporary Embolization
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical procedures for delivering treatment fluids, such as thrombolytic and chemotherapeutic agents, face challenges in accurately targeting treatment sites within the body's vasculature due to difficulties in accessing and controlling fluid flow, leading to potential toxicity and damage to healthy tissues, and the need for embolization techniques that often result in foreign objects being left inside the patient.
Innovation Solution
An intraluminal treatment apparatus featuring a catheter with a flow managing mechanism that includes a helical flow control component with a subordinate shape memory property and a non-helical shape control component with a dominant shape memory property, allowing for adjustable configurations to control fluid flow and occlude lumens, enabling precise delivery of treatment fluids while minimizing exposure to unintended areas.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If embolization devices are deployed to block blood flow and prevent treatment fluid exposure to healthy tissue, then treatment fluid targeting is improved, but foreign objects remain inside the patient causing long-term complications
Solution Approach 1:
The flow managing mechanism is designed to be temporarily deployed for embolization during treatment fluid delivery, then retrieved and removed from the patient's body after the procedure completes, eliminating long-term foreign object complications while maintaining the benefits of targeted treatment delivery
Solution Approach 2:
The flow managing mechanism employs shape memory materials that allow it to dynamically change configuration between a compressed delivery state for insertion and an expanded deployed state for embolization, enabling temporary flow control without permanent implantation
2Measurement precision
If flow control mechanisms are made more complex to achieve precise fluid delivery control, then treatment precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The flow managing mechanism utilizes shape memory materials that automatically respond to temperature changes in the body, self-adjusting from a compressed configuration during delivery to an expanded configuration for embolization without requiring complex external control systems or additional actuators
Solution Approach 2:
The flow managing mechanism exploits temperature as a control parameter, where the shape memory material transitions between different structural states based on body temperature, enabling automatic configuration changes and flow control through passive thermal response rather than active mechanical control
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
This solution allows for precise control of fluid flow, reducing toxicity risks and the need for permanent embolization devices, enabling targeted treatment delivery and retrieval of the apparatus, thereby improving the safety and effectiveness of medical procedures.
Implementation Method 1
adjusting a flow managing mechanism between a lumen access configuration and a deployed configuration. The flow managing mechanism includes a helical flow control component having a subordinate shape memory property, and a non-helical shape control component having a dominant shape memory property
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5
AI summary
An intraluminal treatment apparatus (10) includes a fluid supply mechanism (14) and a flow managing mechanism (40) for controlling a flow of fluid within a body lumen. The flow managing mechanism includes an elongate flow control component (42) having a subordinate shape memory property, and an elongate shape control component (50) positioned within the flow control component and having a dominant shape memory property. The flow control component includes a fixed primary shape, a fixed secondary shape, and a mutable tertiary shape. The shape control component is slidable relative to the flow control component between a first location at which the dominant shape memory property defines the tertiary shape, and a second location at which the subordinate shape memory property defines the tertiary shape. The flow managing mechanism may be adjusted between a lumen access configuration and a deployed configuration for temporary embolization of a vascular lumen such as an artery, to limit supplying a treatment fluid such as a chemotherapeutic agent to the vascular lumen while preferentially supplying the chemotherapeutic agent to another vascular lumen.