Pleated Catheter-Mounted Balloon to Reduce Insertion Forces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional catheters with non-pleated balloons experience difficulty in insertion and withdrawal due to random, tight folds that require high forces, making minimally invasive procedures challenging.
Innovation Solution
The catheter-mounted balloon is pre-pleated to fold in a predictable pattern, reducing insertion and withdrawal forces, and allowing for smaller catheter use, with looser pleats requiring less inflation pressure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a non-pleated balloon is used in a catheter, then the balloon can be fully inflated to treat the patient, but the balloon bunches up and forms tight random folds that require high forces to insert or withdraw
Solution Approach 1:
The balloon is pre-pleated during manufacturing to create predetermined fold lines before the balloon is ever used in the catheter. This preliminary structuring ensures that when the balloon is collapsed for insertion, it follows these pre-established pleat patterns rather than forming random tight folds, thereby reducing the force required for insertion and withdrawal operations
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a smaller catheter is used for minimally invasive procedures, then patient trauma is reduced and recovery time is shortened, but the balloon cannot be fully inflated due to space constraints
Solution Approach 1:
The pleated balloon design transforms the collapse geometry from a three-dimensional random bunching into a controlled two-dimensional pleated structure. This dimensional organization allows the balloon to pack more efficiently within the constrained volume of a smaller catheter while maintaining the capability to fully inflate at the treatment site, thereby enabling minimally invasive procedures with reduced patient trauma
Data Source
AI summary
A catheter-mounted balloon includes an inflatable chamber defining a volume expandable from a deflated state to an inflated state, the inflatable chamber having a distal transition portion, a proximal transition portion, and a cylindrical body portion disposed between the distal transition portion and the proximal transition portion. The cylindrical body portion of the inflatable chamber includes a pleat zone having a pleat when the inflatable chamber is in the deflated state. The catheter-mounted balloon further includes an electrode disposed along a wall of the inflatable chamber. The pleat traverses the electrode such that is electrode is pleated as well.