MRI Cable Management Routing and Retracting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional medical procedures face challenges with long, loose cables that can cause tripping hazards, kinking, tangling, and electrical shorts, and hinder patient transportability and efficient surgical or diagnostic processes, especially in MRI-guided interventional procedures.
Innovation Solution
A cable management system that routes cables through ceilings or floors, allowing for adjustable lengths and retraction, maintaining connections during patient movement within and out of MRI scanner bores, and includes features like RF decoupling and filtering to prevent interference.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If long loose cables are used to connect medical devices, then electrical connections are maintained, but tripping hazards, kinking, tangling, and electrical shorts occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the problematic loose cable portion by routing cables through ceiling channels and wall conduits, removing them from the floor area where they cause tripping hazards. The cables are taken out of the harmful environment (floor level) and placed in protected pathways (ceiling channels), eliminating kinking and tangling while maintaining electrical connections.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces ceiling channels and cable management systems as intermediary structures between the medical devices and power sources. These intermediaries guide and protect the cables, preventing direct contact with the floor and eliminating tripping hazards while maintaining reliable electrical connections.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If cables are routed through ceiling channels, then tripping hazards and kinking are eliminated, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The ceiling channels serve multiple functions: they route cables, protect them from damage, eliminate tripping hazards, and provide a structured pathway for future cable additions. This multi-functionality justifies the added complexity by delivering multiple benefits from a single system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent moves cable routing from the horizontal plane (floor level) to the vertical dimension (ceiling channels). This dimensional change eliminates the problem of cables lying on the floor while organizing them in a three-dimensional space that is out of the way of patient and provider movement.
3Adaptability or versatility
If cables are made adjustable in length, then patient transportability improves, but cable management complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic cable length adjustment through retractable mechanisms and flexible routing in ceiling channels. The cable management system can adapt its configuration as patients are moved in and out of the MRI bore, providing the necessary flexibility without requiring complex manual intervention.
Solution Approach 2:
The ceiling channels are pre-installed and configured before patient procedures, creating a prepared pathway that accommodates cable movement. This preliminary setup eliminates the need for complex real-time cable management during patient transport, as the infrastructure is already in place to handle the movements.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosure describes cable management systems that provide adjustable lengths of cables that connect to various electronic medical or surgical tools. The systems can reduce the lengths of loose or hanging cables and define routes that preventing cross-over, looping and/or bunching of loose lengths of long cables.