Medical Catheter Push Assembly for Tortuous Vessel Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical catheters face challenges in navigating through heavy tortuosity and calcification within body vessels due to their rigidity and large radial profile, which can lead to adverse interactions with patient tissue and difficulty in delivering medical devices to target sites.
Innovation Solution
A medical catheter design featuring a push assembly with an elongate member and an anchor member positioned between an inner liner and outer jacket, allowing for a smaller radial profile and increased flexibility, along with a beveled distal edge and radiopaque markers for improved maneuverability and visualization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If existing medical catheters are made rigid to maintain structural integrity, then they can support medical devices during delivery, but they cannot navigate through heavy tortuosity and calcification in body vessels
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is divided into multiple segments: an outer catheter for initial access, and an inner catheter with elongate body that can be advanced through the outer catheter. This segmentation allows the inner catheter to be delivered through a relatively rigid outer catheter while the inner catheter itself maintains flexibility for navigating tortuous vessels.
Solution Approach 2:
The inner catheter is nested within the outer catheter during delivery. The elongate body of the inner catheter extends through the outer catheter, allowing the flexible inner catheter to be transported through the stiffer outer catheter structure while maintaining its ability to navigate complex vasculature.
2Strength
If existing medical catheters have a large radial profile to maintain structural support, then they can bear medical devices, but they cause adverse interactions with patient tissue
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter system separates the load-bearing function (outer catheter with larger radial profile) from the navigation function (inner catheter with smaller radial profile). This allows the inner catheter to interact minimally with tissue while the outer catheter provides structural support for medical devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The inner catheter with smaller radial profile is nested within the outer catheter, allowing the system to maintain the load-bearing capacity of the outer catheter while the inner catheter's smaller profile reduces adverse tissue interactions during navigation through vessels.
3Ease of operation
If existing medical catheters are made flexible to navigate tortuous vessels, then they can access challenging regions, but they lack the rigidity to effectively deliver medical devices
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides delivery functions between two catheters: the outer catheter provides rigidity for device delivery support, while the inner catheter provides flexibility for navigation. This segmentation allows each component to optimize its mechanical properties for its specific function.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible inner catheter is nested within the rigid outer catheter, allowing the system to combine the navigational advantages of flexibility with the delivery capabilities of rigidity. The inner catheter can navigate tortuous vessels while the outer catheter provides the structural framework for effective medical device delivery.
Data Source
AI summary
In some examples, a catheter may include an elongate body and a push assembly. The elongate body may include an inner liner defining an entry port into a lumen defined by the elongate body, and an outer jacket. The push assembly may an anchor member positioned at a distal end of an elongate member. Distal to a proximal end of the elongate body, a first portion of the push assembly, comprising the anchor member, may be positioned between a portion of the inner liner and a portion of the outer jacket. The anchor member may extend only partially around an outer perimeter of the inner liner when the catheter is assembled. Proximal to the proximal end of the elongate body, a second portion of the push assembly, proximal to the first portion, may be positioned outside of the outer jacket and the inner liner.