Motorless Intralumenal Turbine-Impeller Device for Heart Failure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current treatments for heart failure, particularly those involving ventricular assist devices, require invasive surgery and are associated with significant complications and limited long-term ambulatory solutions, with no optimal methods available for managing right heart failure following left ventricular assist device implantation.
Innovation Solution
A minimally invasive, motorless intralumenal fluid flow influencing device that harnesses kinetic energy from one fluid flow to enhance flow in another, using a turbine and impeller mechanism implanted percutaneously, allowing for chronic use without external power sources or additional surgical interventions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If invasive surgical treatments are used for heart failure management, then treatment effectiveness is improved, but patient risk and surgical complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical surgical implantation system with a transcatheter delivery system. The turbine and impeller are delivered through catheters via percutaneous access, eliminating the need for open surgery or sternotomy. This substitution maintains treatment effectiveness while dramatically reducing patient risk and procedural complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the pump function from a surgical implant context and relocates it to a transcatheter-delivered device. The turbine-impeller mechanism is designed to be delivered through peripheral vessels without surgical exposure of the heart, separating the therapeutic function from invasive surgical procedures.
2Device complexity
If motorless turbine-impeller mechanism is used, then device complexity and power requirements are reduced, but ability to control flow rate and pressure is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The device is designed to be self-regulating, where the turbine-impeller mechanism automatically adapts to varying flow conditions. The kinetic energy extraction from the first fluid stream and transfer to the second stream occurs passively based on flow dynamics, eliminating the need for external control systems while maintaining effective operation across varying physiological conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes changes in fluid flow parameters (velocity, pressure, kinetic energy) to achieve the desired pumping effect. By designing the turbine and impeller geometries to optimize energy transfer across a range of flow conditions, the device achieves effective flow control without mechanical actuators or external power sources.
3Reliability
If kinetic energy is extracted from one fluid flow to enhance another, then treatment of right heart failure is improved, but energy loss in the source flow occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent converts the kinetic energy that would otherwise be wasted or dissipated in the first fluid stream into useful work by driving the turbine to power the impeller. The energy extraction from the high-flow aorta or pulmonary artery creates a controlled energy loss that is immediately converted into beneficial flow enhancement in the lower-flow pulmonary artery or aorta, respectively.
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
Enables improved management of right heart failure post-LVAD implantation by providing a more effective and less invasive solution, allowing patients to be ambulatory and reducing the need for additional surgical interventions, thus addressing the limitations of existing treatments.
Implementation Method 1
the second vaned rotor acts as a turbine and is caused to rotate by the flow of the second fluid within the second conduit, thereby extracting kinetic energy from the second fluid
Implementation Method 2
the first vaned rotor acts an impeller and is caused to rotate as a result of the rotational movement of the second vaned rotor, thereby imparting kinetic energy to the first fluid
Data Source
AI summary
Mammalian body implantable fluid flow influencing device for influencing flow of a first fluid within a first bodily conduit via a flow of a second fluid within a second bodily conduit, comprising a first and a second working end. Each end has a vaned rotor and an anchor for anchoring that end within a bodily conduit. Each end having a delivery configuration for percutaneous transcatheter endovascular delivery to an implantation site within a bodily conduit. A driveshaft assembly operatively interconnects the second end rotor with the first end rotor to transmit rotational movement of the second rotor to the first rotor. When the device is implanted within the body, the second vaned rotor acts as a turbine and extracts kinetic energy from the second fluid, and the first vaned rotor acts an impeller and imparts kinetic energy to the first fluid. The device is motorless.