Object-Delivery Shuttle for Minimally Invasive Medical Device Placement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for delivering medical devices or objects to specific locations within the body, such as the gastrointestinal tract, face limitations including limited dwell time, dispersion, and risks associated with open surgical techniques like trauma and infection, necessitating a minimally invasive solution.
Innovation Solution
An object-transport device designed for use with wire guides or elongate medical devices, featuring a body with a leading and trailing portion, a cargo-carrying portion, and an aperture for slidably mounting onto a wire guide, allowing for the delivery of objects to targeted sites within the body using minimally invasive techniques like endoscopic surgery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If open surgical techniques are used to deliver objects to specific body locations, then delivery precision is improved, but patient trauma and infection risk increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a wire guide as an intermediary tool that enables minimally invasive delivery. The wire guide serves as a mediator between the delivery device and the target location, allowing precise object placement through existing natural passages or small incisions rather than requiring open surgery. This intermediary approach maintains delivery precision while significantly reducing patient trauma and infection risk.
Solution Approach 2:
The delivery system is segmented into multiple components: a delivery device, a wire guide, and a shuttle mechanism. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function - the delivery device provides the object, the wire guide provides the pathway, and the shuttle mechanism facilitates transfer. This modular approach enables precise delivery through minimally invasive routes, resolving the contradiction between precision and trauma reduction.
2Ease of operation
If swallowed items are used for delivery, then minimally invasive approach is achieved, but dwell time is limited and objects are dispersed or confined to gastrointestinal passage
Solution Approach 1:
The wire guide acts as an intermediary that extends beyond the gastrointestinal passage to reach target locations in other body passages. This intermediary structure enables the delivery system to overcome the limitation of swallowed items being confined to the GI tract, allowing extended dwell time at specific target locations while maintaining the minimally invasive swallowing approach.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from one-dimensional delivery (swallowing through the esophagus) to multi-dimensional delivery by using the wire guide to reach into other body passages and spaces. This dimensional expansion allows the object to be delivered to locations beyond the gastrointestinal passage, significantly extending dwell time while maintaining the initial minimally invasive swallowing entry point.
3Measurement precision
If wire guide with shuttle mechanism is used, then delivery precision and accessibility are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The complex delivery system is divided into separate functional segments: the delivery device containing the object, the wire guide providing the pathway, and the shuttle mechanism for transfer. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and simplifies the overall system by distributing complexity across manageable parts rather than requiring a single complex integrated device.
Solution Approach 2:
The wire guide serves multiple functions: it provides a delivery pathway, acts as a support structure, and enables positioning at target locations. The shuttle mechanism also serves dual purposes by transferring objects and potentially serving as a retrieval tool. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate dedicated components, thereby managing device complexity while maintaining high delivery precision and accessibility.
Data Source
AI summary
An object-delivery shuttle for delivering an object over an elongate medical device, such as a wire guide, to a desired location within a body.