Multi-chamber Expandable Therapeutic Agent Delivery Device
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical devices for delivering therapeutic agents to body lumens, such as drug eluting balloons and direct injection catheters, face challenges in effectively targeting and retaining agents within specific regions, leading to inefficiencies and potential harm due to agent dilution and uneven distribution.
Innovation Solution
A multi-chamber expandable therapeutic agent delivery device that simultaneously excludes blood from the target vessel and delivers therapeutic agents directly to the interior wall, using a compliant material structure with echogenic features for enhanced visibility and adjustable chamber configurations to optimize agent distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If drug eluting balloons are used to deliver therapeutic agents, then the agents can be delivered to the target site, but the agents may be lost during positioning and require complex release mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The device divides the delivery system into separate functional chambers: an inflation chamber for balloon expansion and therapeutic agent chambers for drug delivery. This segmentation allows independent control of balloon positioning and agent release, eliminating the need for complex integrated release mechanisms while ensuring reliable agent delivery.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a fluid communication system as an intermediary between the therapeutic agent reservoir and the balloon surface. The agent is delivered through controlled fluid flow rather than direct contact or complex mechanical release, simplifying the delivery mechanism while maintaining reliability.
2Productivity
If direct injection catheters are used to inject active agents into blood vessels, then the agents can be delivered, but the agents may be diluted and unevenly distributed in the targeted region
Solution Approach 1:
The device incorporates multiple therapeutic agent chambers with individual delivery apertures distributed across different regions of the balloon surface. This allows localized delivery of agents to specific areas of the vessel wall, ensuring uniform distribution across the treatment zone while maximizing delivery efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from single-point injection to multi-point surface delivery by distributing therapeutic agent chambers across the two-dimensional balloon surface. This dimensional expansion ensures comprehensive coverage and uniform agent distribution across the entire targeted vessel region.
3Reliability
If expandable balloons are used to retain injected active agent in targeted region, then agent retention is improved, but the device structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The device merges the retention function into the basic balloon structure itself. The expandable balloon creates a physical barrier that naturally retains agents in the targeted region without requiring additional complex retention mechanisms. The balloon's expansion geometry provides inherent agent containment.
4Measurement precision
If multiple chambers are used for simultaneous blood exclusion and agent delivery, then treatment precision is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The device segments functionality into distinct chambers: an inflation chamber for blood exclusion and separate therapeutic agent chambers for targeted drug delivery. This segmentation enables precise independent control of each function while maintaining relatively simple overall device structure through modular design.
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B~1F
Figure 2
AI summary
A device having multiple chambers may be configured to expand to contact a substantial section of an interior wall of a body structure or lumen in order to simultaneously exclude blood or other liquid from a target structure while providing for delivery of a therapeutic agent directly to the interior wall. The expandable device may be manufactured from a plurality of flat sheets of material heat sealed to one another to form an inflation chamber and one, two or more delivery chambers. The sheets may also be bonded to an elongate catheter body having inflation and delivery lumens. The excluding of blood flow and delivery of therapeutic agents are completed by the same device.