Occluder With Threaded Fixation Bushes and Protective Jacket
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing occluders for closing passages in the circulatory system face issues with small parts breaking and wandering within the body, leading to potential harm, and uneven tissue overgrowth, which can cause damage and complications.
Innovation Solution
The occluder design incorporates fixation bushes sewn to the occluding bodies with threads, forming a secure connection that prevents loose parts from wandering, and a jacket or shell to encase the elongate members, ensuring they remain fixed and preventing migration within the body, while allowing for expansion and adaptation to tissue.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If thin wire-like elongate members are used to form the fixation structure, then the occluder can be deployed and expanded at the desired location, but the elongate members may break and small parts may wander through the body causing severe damage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies beforehand cushioning by providing a protecting jacket or shell that envelops the fixation structure before deployment. This jacket prevents broken elongate members from wandering through the body, cushioning against potential severe damage while maintaining the deployability of the thin wire-like members.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a flexible protecting jacket or shell made of soft and flexible material that can be compressed or folded during introduction through the catheter. This flexible shell envelops the fixation structure, providing protection against broken parts while allowing the occluder to be deployed in the compressed state and expanded at the target location.
2Duration of action of stationary object
If biodegradable material is used for the occluder, then the implant can be dissolved after serving its purpose, but the material must be overgrown with body tissue before dissolving, which may cause complications
Solution Approach 1:
The protecting jacket provides beforehand cushioning during the biodegradation process, ensuring that if any parts break during the degradation period, they are contained and cannot wander through the body. This allows the biodegradable material to serve its temporary occlusion purpose safely.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by making different parts of the occluder have different degradation characteristics. The fixation structure and occluding body can be made of biodegradable materials with controlled degradation rates, while the protecting jacket provides temporary protection during this process, allowing localized control over the degradation timeline.
3Ease of manufacture
If the occluding body is made of disk-like flexible membrane, then it can be expanded by the fixation structure to close the passage, but the occluding body overgrows faster than the elongate members, causing uneven tissue overgrowth
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by providing different protection levels to different parts of the occluder. The protecting jacket envelops the fixation structure with different characteristics than the occluding body, allowing controlled and uniform tissue overgrowth across different components rather than uniform fast overgrowth of the occluding body.
Solution Approach 2:
The protecting jacket provides beforehand cushioning for the fixation structure, ensuring that even if tissue overgrowth rates differ between components, the broken parts from elongate members cannot wander through the body. This cushions against the complications of uneven tissue integration.
4Reliability
If a protecting jacket is added to prevent broken parts from wandering, then safety is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible protecting jacket or shell that can be compressed or folded, allowing it to be introduced through a catheter in a compressed state and then expanded at the target location. This flexible shell design adds protection functionality without significantly increasing the overall device complexity, as it uses the same compression-expansion mechanism as the occluder itself.
Data Source
AI summary
An occluder including at least one occluding body, a multiple of elongate members forming an expanding unit capable of expanding into at least one fixation structure for fixing the occluding body within the passage thereby expanding the occluding body), the elongate members penetrating the occluding body, a locking unit for locking the expanding unit in its expanded state, fixation bushes for restricting relative movement between the elongate members and the occluding body, each fixation bush surrounding one single elongate member and abutting the occluding body, at least one thread and wherein at least one of these fixation bushes is fastened to the at least one occluding body with this at least one thread, the thread penetrating the at least one bush and the occluding body.