Vascular Microcatheter with Tapering Shaft for Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current catheters face challenges in navigating peripheral blood vessels efficiently and delivering drugs or materials to specific sites within the body due to clogging issues and the need for high shear forces, making precise and effective treatment difficult.
Innovation Solution
A microcatheter with a shaft having varying stiffness and flexibility along its length, featuring a tapering wall with different Shore D hardness values and braid sections, along with a hydrophilic coating and lubricious internal liner, allowing for easier navigation and drug delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the catheter shaft is made uniformly stiff throughout its length, then it maintains structural stability and is easy to manipulate at the proximal end, but it cannot navigate tortuous peripheral blood vessels effectively and may cause tissue damage at the distal end
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter shaft is constructed with varying wall thickness along its length, creating regions of different stiffness. The proximal end has thicker walls for stability and ease of manipulation, while the distal end has thinner walls for flexibility and navigation capability. This gradient structure allows each section to have optimized properties for its specific function.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter shaft is divided into multiple segments with different wall thicknesses and material compositions. This segmentation allows the proximal segments to provide structural support while distal segments provide flexibility, resolving the contradiction between overall stability and local navigability.
2Ease of operation
If the catheter shaft is made uniformly flexible throughout its length, then it can navigate tortuous blood vessels easily, but it lacks the stability needed for precise drug delivery and is difficult to manipulate at the proximal end
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter employs a gradient wall thickness design where the distal end has thinner, more flexible walls for navigating tortuous vessels, while the proximal end has thicker, stiffer walls for stable manipulation and precise drug delivery. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction between flexibility and stability.
3Productivity
If high shear force is applied to deliver drugs through the catheter, then drug delivery efficiency is improved, but the catheter is more prone to clogging and tissue damage occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter utilizes pressure gradient flow through its tapered design, where the decreasing cross-sectional area from proximal to distal end creates a natural pressure increase that drives drug delivery. This eliminates the need for high shear forces, reducing clogging risk and tissue damage while maintaining delivery efficiency.
4Ease of operation
If the catheter wall is made thin to reduce profile and improve flexibility, then navigation capability is enhanced, but the catheter loses structural integrity and becomes difficult to manipulate
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter employs varying wall thickness along its length, with thinner walls at the distal end for flexibility and navigation, and thicker walls at the proximal end for structural integrity and manipulability. This local differentiation allows the catheter to achieve both thin-profile navigation and sufficient strength.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter may incorporate composite material structures with varying composition along its length, combining materials with different mechanical properties to achieve the desired gradient of flexibility and strength throughout the shaft.
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 microcatheter facilitates precise and efficient delivery of drugs or materials to targeted sites within the body, reducing clogging and improving navigation through tortuous anatomical pathways, while maintaining stability and minimizing tissue damage.
Implementation Method 1
The shaft (12) may be coated with a hydrophilic material (30)
Implementation Method 2
The lumen (24) may include a lubricious material (26)
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a microcatheter with a tapering wall thickness shaft having varying stiffness/flexibility along its length from proximal end near the medical practitioner to the distal end near the target site in the patient, such as with at least three segments. The shaft is prepared of a thermoplastic material having varying composition along its length. The distal end may be shaped according to the required use just prior to the medical procedure. The microcatheter is particularly adapted for the delivery of microspheric compositions for treatment of tumors or fibroids by embolization of peripheral blood vessels of the tumor or fibroid.