Self-Expandable Lung Lesion Marker for Precise Resection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical methods for treating early lung lesions often require extensive resection areas, leading to reduced quality of life and potentially shorter survival times due to inaccurate lesion detection and large surgical interventions.
Innovation Solution
A self-expandable marker made of shape memory alloy, capable of being delivered to a lung lesion via a constricting device and expanding to mark the site accurately, allowing for minimal resection and precise surgical targeting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional surgery extends the resection area to ensure radical treatment, then the reliability of lesion removal is improved, but the patient's quality of life and survival time deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The marker is implanted into the lesion site before surgery through a minimally invasive catheter-based approach. This preliminary action enables precise pre-positioning of the lesion, allowing surgeons to accurately identify and target only the affected area during resection, thereby ensuring radical treatment while preserving healthy tissue and improving patient outcomes
2Reliability
If early lung lesions are treated with radical surgery, then the reliability of treatment is improved, but the resection area must be extended which increases surgical complexity and patient trauma
Solution Approach 1:
The marker is delivered and positioned in the lesion site before the surgical procedure begins. This preliminary marking action simplifies the subsequent surgery by providing clear visual guidance, allowing surgeons to perform precise resection without needing to extend the surgical field or use complex navigation systems during the operation
3Ease of operation
If the marker uses a self-expandable structure, then the ease of delivery and deployment is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The self-expandable marker is designed with a nested structure where the marker body is contained within a delivery catheter in a compressed state. Upon deployment, the marker self-expands from its nested configuration to its functional shape, enabling simple catheter-based delivery while achieving the desired marker geometry at the target site
Solution Approach 2:
The marker utilizes shape memory alloy material that changes its physical parameters (shape, volume, stiffness) in response to temperature changes or mechanical release from the constraining device. This parameter change enables the marker to transition from a compressed deliverable state to an expanded functional state, simplifying deployment while managing structural complexity through material properties
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 self-expandable marker enables accurate and quick lesion localization, reducing surgery time and post-surgical recovery, while minimizing the resection area and preserving patient quality of life and survival expectancy.
Implementation Method 1
the self-expandable structure is formed from a braided structure by a shape memory alloy
Data Source
AI summary
A marker for use in the lung of patients for marking the position of a lesion in the lung, wherein the marker comprises a self-expandable structure capable of self-expanding when released from a constricting device so as to implement marking function. Because the marker for use in the lung of a patient employs the self-expandable structure, when the position of a lesion is detected during a lung examination, the marker can be delivered to the position of the lesion via a catheter or a delivering device and substantively pressed and fixed by the lung when expanded at the lesion positions; as such, the lesion position can be located quickly by a surgeon during a surgery, the surgery time is shortened, the area of resection is reduced, and the post-surgery quality of life is improved for a patient.