Off-Center Camera Train Holder for Space-Optimized Visualization Catheter
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional baby scopes used in medical procedures face challenges due to their limited internal working space, poor image quality, and bulky camera equipment, which restricts their effectiveness in reaching smaller anatomical areas and performing procedures efficiently.
Innovation Solution
The development of a space-optimized visualization catheter that integrates a CMOS sensor and lens stack within a camera train holder system, allowing for a smaller outer diameter while maximizing internal space for working channels and illumination, and utilizing a flexible polymer construction to facilitate better image capture and fluid flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If bulky camera equipment is used to capture images, then image gathering capability is achieved, but the outer diameter increases and internal working space decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the camera equipment from the traditional catheter configuration and positions it in an off-center location within the catheter body. This extraction from the central axis allows working channels to be positioned more efficiently around the camera, maximizing the use of available internal space while maintaining image gathering capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a conventional centralized camera arrangement to a three-dimensional off-center configuration. By moving the camera to an off-center position and arranging working channels in a radial pattern around it, the design utilizes the third dimension more effectively, increasing internal working space without compromising image quality
2Adaptability or versatility
If more lumens and equipment are added to the catheter, then functional capability is improved, but the outer diameter increases
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter design integrates multiple functions into a unified off-center configuration. The camera train holder serves as both a structural support for imaging equipment and a spatial organizer that enables efficient arrangement of multiple working channels, light sources, and fluid lumens around it, allowing the catheter to perform multiple functions without increasing outer diameter
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a nested arrangement where working channels, light lumens, and fluid pathways are positioned concentrically around the off-center camera train holder. This nesting strategy allows multiple functional elements to be packed efficiently within the constrained outer diameter, with each component utilizing the space between itself and the camera assembly
3Ease of manufacture
If camera equipment is positioned centrally, then alignment is simplified, but available space for working channels is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent deliberately employs asymmetric positioning of the camera train holder within the catheter body, moving it from the central axis to an off-center location. This asymmetric arrangement creates unequal radial spaces that can be optimally utilized by positioning working channels, light sources, and fluid lumens in specific angular positions, thereby maximizing the total volume available for functional channels while maintaining manufacturability through the use of a modular camera train holder assembly
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 1C
Figure 2A
AI summary
Methods and apparatuses for space-optimized visualization catheters are provided. Some embodiments utilize complimentary metal-oxide-semi-conductor ("CMOS") technology integrated into a CMOS camera train holder system that may be a stand-alone component for use with a visualization catheter, such as a baby endoscope, or may be fabricated/extruded as a part of the catheter itself. Some embodiments of apparatuses, methods, and equivalents thereof provide better direct visual feedback to the medical personnel performing the procedure while providing a similarly-sized outer diameter visualization catheter device having an increased space therein for additional lumens and equipment or by reducing the overall outer diameters of the visualization catheter.