Multi-Electrode Lead Backing for Secure Baroreceptor Stimulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing nerve stimulation technologies for baroreceptors, such as those in the carotid sinus, face challenges in securely attaching electrodes to blood vessels, leading to potential tissue damage and inefficient stimulation due to lack of effective suture guidance and tear resistance.
Innovation Solution
The development of an electrode structure with a backing element featuring a curved shape, embedded mesh, and grooves or holes to guide suture placement, which is designed to securely attach to a neurostimulation lead and minimize tearing during implantation, ensuring effective stimulation of target nerves.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If electrodes are attached to blood vessels using conventional methods, then electrode positioning is achieved, but tissue damage occurs and attachment security is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The backing element is constructed as a flexible, thin-film structure that can conform to the curved surface of blood vessels. This flexibility allows the electrode to adapt to vessel geometry without causing mechanical damage, while the thin-film nature minimizes tissue displacement and trauma during implantation.
Solution Approach 2:
The backing element incorporates a curved shape that matches the natural curvature of blood vessels. This curved geometry enables the electrode to attach securely to the vessel surface without creating stress concentration points that would cause tissue damage or detachment.
2Manufacturing precision
If suturing is performed without guidance features, then electrode attachment is achieved, but suture placement precision is poor leading to tearing
Solution Approach 1:
Guidance features such as grooves or holes are pre-formed in the backing element at optimal locations for suture placement. This preliminary arrangement of suture pathways ensures that sutures are placed precisely where needed to achieve secure attachment without concentrating stress in vulnerable areas, thereby preventing tearing during the suturing process.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the backing material is thin and flexible for vessel conformity, then vessel adaptation is improved, but tear resistance during suturing deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The backing element is constructed from composite materials that combine the flexibility and conformability of thin-film polymers with the tensile strength of reinforcement fibers or mesh. This composite structure allows the electrode to adapt to vessel curvature while providing sufficient resistance to tearing during the suturing process.
Data Source
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AI summary
An electrode structure for an implantable stimulation lead for use in stimulating a target nerve structure within a patient includes a flexible backing defined by a major dimension extending in a direction of a first axis, and a minor dimension extending generally in a same plane as and orthogonal to the first axis. The electrode structure also includes a plurality of electrodes coupled to the backing.