Implantable Medical Lead with Rotating Drive Shaft Tine Anchoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current implantable medical leads face challenges in securely anchoring and effectively delivering therapies to specific cardiac tissues, such as the left bundle branch, His bundle, and right bundle branch, due to limitations in their design for tissue penetration and electrode placement.
Innovation Solution
The implantable medical lead features a drive shaft and torque member mechanism that allows for the extension and retraction of tines, which can be rotated to penetrate cardiac tissue, providing secure anchorage and allowing for individualized electrical stimulation, with tines being either flat or helical and capable of radial expansion for better tissue engagement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional lead designs are used for anchoring, then the lead can be implanted, but secure anchoring and effective therapy delivery to specific cardiac tissues cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The lead is divided into multiple functional segments including a lead body, drive shaft, torque member, and multiple tines. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function independently, with the drive shaft and torque member handling anchoring while the tines provide therapy delivery, thereby achieving secure anchoring without excessive overall complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The drive shaft and torque member are nested within the lead body, with the torque member positioned inside the lumen of the lead body. This nested arrangement allows the anchoring mechanism to be compactly integrated into the lead structure, achieving secure anchoring while maintaining a relatively simple overall device form factor
2Measurement precision
If traditional electrode placement is used, then the lead can deliver therapy, but precise anchoring and individualized electrical stimulation cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The tines are designed to be extendable and retractable rather than fixed, allowing dynamic adjustment of electrode placement during implantation. The drive shaft can be rotated to extend tines to precise target locations, and the torque member allows for fine-tuning of the drive shaft position, achieving precise electrode placement while maintaining ease of operation through controlled mechanical movement
Solution Approach 2:
The lead is designed with pre-configured tines that can be extended to predetermined positions. The drive shaft and torque member system allows the operator to pre-position the tines at optimal locations before final implantation, achieving precise electrode placement while simplifying the actual implantation 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
This design enables precise anchoring and stimulation of cardiac tissues, facilitating more physiologic activation and contraction of the heart, while allowing for multi-point pacing and sensing capabilities.
Implementation Method 1
The drive shaft is configured to threadably engage the interior surface, and a torque member configured to rotate the drive shaft around the longitudinal axis. The drive shaft is configured to translate in a direction substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis when the torque member rotates the drive shaft.
Data Source
AI summary
An implantable medical lead comprising one or more tines configured to extend and/or retract from a lead body. The implantable medical lead includes a torque member within the implantable medical lead and configured to rotate a drive shaft within the implantable medical lead. The drive shaft is threadably engaged with an interior surface of the implantable medical lead and configured to convert the rotation into a lateral translation of the drive shaft. The one or more tines are configured such that the lateral translation of the torque member laterally translates the one or more tines. The one or more tines are each electrically connected to a conductor extending through a lumen of the implantable medical lead and electrically isolated from each other.