Microcatheter Distal Tip Structure for Narrow Vessel Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing catheters struggle to easily and effectively navigate narrow blood vessels such as perforators, AVMs, vertebral arteries, or vasa vasorum connected to tumors due to their design limitations.
Innovation Solution
A catheter with a resin layer, reinforcement layer, and a radiopaque marker, featuring a distal tip with specific dimensions and flexibility, allowing it to follow a guide wire into narrow vessels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a catheter is designed with sufficient rigidity to maintain structural integrity, then it can support medical procedures, but it cannot easily navigate narrow blood vessels such as perforators
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is divided into multiple sections with different rigidity characteristics. The proximal portion has higher rigidity for structural support, while the distal portion has lower rigidity for navigating narrow vessels. This segmentation allows each part to perform its specific function optimally.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the catheter are assigned different mechanical properties. The reinforcement layer is positioned in the proximal portion to provide rigidity where needed, while the distal portion maintains flexibility for navigation. This local differentiation of quality resolves the contradiction between overall strength and localized flexibility.
2Length of moving object
If a catheter is designed with small outer diameter to access narrow vessels, then it can enter perforators, but it has insufficient pushing power and structural stability
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter structure is segmented into a thin-walled distal portion for navigation and a reinforced proximal portion for pushing power. The reinforcement layer is strategically placed in the proximal portion, allowing the catheter to have small outer diameter overall while maintaining sufficient pushing power where the force is applied.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter uses a composite structure combining the resin layer with the reinforcement layer in the proximal portion. This composite construction provides enhanced mechanical strength and pushing power while maintaining a small outer diameter, resolving the contradiction between size and strength.
3Length of moving object
If a catheter has a long distal tip for deep vessel access, then it can reach sufficient depth, but it increases bending resistance and difficulty of insertion
Solution Approach 1:
The distal tip is designed with locally optimized properties: it has sufficient length for deep vessel access but incorporates specific structural features that reduce bending resistance. The reinforcement layer is positioned to provide support without creating excessive rigidity in the distal portion, allowing easy navigation while maintaining adequate length.
Data Source
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AI summary
A catheter (100) includes a resin-made distal tip (80) linked to a distal end of a catheter body (10), and the distal tip (80) has a distal lumen (81) having an open distal end. The distal lumen (81) communicates with a lumen (31). The catheter (100) is an inactive type microcatheter in which an outer diameter of the distal end of the catheter body (10) is 0.6 mm or smaller and a maximum outer diameter of the distal tip (80) is 0.6 mm or smaller. A dimension of a marker (70) in an axial direction of the catheter body (10) is smaller than the maximum outer diameter of the distal tip (80), and the length of the distal tip (80) in the axial direction of the distal tip (80) is 3 times to 18 times the maximum outer diameter of the distal tip (80).