Microtube Guide With Movable Core For Adjustable Stiffness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current guidewires used in medical procedures have fixed flexural strength that cannot be adjusted during use, which limits their adaptability and can cause tissue trauma due to their wire-wrapped construction.
Innovation Solution
A microtube guide with a movable central core and a closed distal end, allowing for adjustable stiffness and configuration by exchanging cores or adjusting core insertion depth, providing a hybrid solution with a smooth microcatheter outer surface for reduced tissue trauma.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a fixed core guidewire construction is used, then the guidewire has stable structural integrity, but the flexural strength cannot be adjusted during use
Solution Approach 1:
The guidewire is divided into two independent components: a microcatheter and a separate core. This segmentation allows the core to be exchanged or adjusted independently while keeping the microcatheter, enabling different flexural strengths to be achieved by using different cores without changing the entire guidewire construction.
Solution Approach 2:
The core is made movable within the microcatheter rather than being fixed, allowing dynamic adjustment of core insertion depth to change the effective flexural strength. The core can be advanced or retracted to adjust stiffness, and can be completely exchanged for different core types during the procedure.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a wire-wrapped construction is used, then the guidewire has sufficient structural support, but it causes tissue trauma
Solution Approach 1:
The microcatheter provides a smooth, flexible outer surface that replaces the traditional wire-wrapped construction. This smooth surface reduces friction and trauma to blood vessel walls while the internal core maintains the necessary structural support and pushability.
Solution Approach 2:
The guidewire combines two different materials/constructions: a smooth microcatheter material for the outer surface that is gentle on tissues, and a core material (such as shaped memory alloy or coated wire) that provides structural support. This composite structure achieves both low tissue trauma and sufficient wire support.
3Ease of operation
If the distal end of the microcatheter is open, then it allows free passage, but it reduces control over the core position
Solution Approach 1:
The closed distal end of the microcatheter acts as an intermediary structure that provides a reference point for core positioning. By closing the distal end, the operator can more easily control and predict the position of the core relative to the microcatheter tip, improving positioning accuracy without requiring complex external positioning mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
A microtube guide has a microtube combined with a free-floating and removable core. The microtube is generally hollow with a tube shaft and a distal ring, the tube shaft and the distal ring formed from flexible plastic. The distal ring is conformable to the core and straightenable for insertion into a patient's body, and deploys when the core is withdrawn to form a loop. The core is received by the microtube and is configured to advance into the distal ring to cause a diameter of the distal ring to expand, retract, or straighten. The distal ring diameter is thus adjustable by the user.