Medical Catheter with Segmented Distal Diameter for Hypothermia
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical catheters for hypothermic treatment face challenges in navigating small, tortuous cerebral blood vessels while maintaining efficient cooling and minimizing tissue trauma, as they require a balance between flexibility, insulating effect, and large cooling fluid flow through small lumens, and often waste space within the sheath due to balloon heat-exchanger designs.
Innovation Solution
A medical catheter with a distal portion having a smaller outside diameter and wall thickness than the proximal portion, featuring at least one through-lumen and two temperature-regulating lumens, with an expandable heat-exchanger element like a balloon in fluid communication, allowing for optimal use of sheath space and reduced overall diameter for easier vessel entry, and potentially acting as its own sheath for direct vessel access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the catheter has a uniform outside diameter throughout its length, then the heat-exchanger element can be easily accommodated, but the catheter cannot be optimally fed into small tortuous vessels and waste space within the sheath
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter tube is divided into multiple sections with different outside diameters: a proximal portion with a first outside diameter for sheath compatibility and space optimization, and a distal portion with a second, smaller outside diameter for vessel navigation. This segmentation allows each section to be optimized for its specific function while maintaining overall system integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the catheter tube are given different local properties: the proximal portion has a larger diameter to maximize sheath space utilization and provide structural support, while the distal portion has a smaller diameter to enable navigation through tortuous vessels and reduce trauma. The heat-exchanger element is strategically positioned in the distal portion where it can function effectively without increasing overall catheter diameter.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the catheter has a smaller outside diameter to navigate tortuous vessels, then flexibility and vessel access improve, but the heat-exchanger element cannot be adequately accommodated
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter tube is divided into multiple sections with different outside diameters: a proximal portion with a first outside diameter for sheath compatibility and space optimization, and a distal portion with a second, smaller outside diameter for vessel navigation. This segmentation allows each section to be optimized for its specific function while maintaining overall system integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The heat-exchanger element is positioned within the distal portion of the catheter tube, nested within the smaller diameter section. This allows the heat-exchanger to be accommodated without increasing the overall catheter diameter, enabling navigation through tortuous vessels while maintaining cooling functionality.
3Temperature
If the balloon heat-exchanger has a large compressed diameter, then cooling efficiency improves, but it cannot be fed through the sheath and wastes space
Solution Approach 1:
Different portions of the catheter tube are given different local properties: the proximal portion has a larger diameter to maximize sheath space utilization and provide structural support, while the distal portion has a smaller diameter to enable navigation through tortuous vessels and reduce trauma. The heat-exchanger element is strategically positioned in the distal portion where it can function effectively without increasing overall catheter diameter.
Solution Approach 2:
The heat-exchanger element is positioned within the distal portion of the catheter tube, nested within the smaller diameter section. This allows the heat-exchanger to be accommodated without increasing the overall catheter diameter, enabling navigation through tortuous vessels while maintaining cooling functionality.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The catheter achieves enhanced flexibility for navigating tortuous vessels, reduced tissue trauma during insertion, and efficient cooling with minimized temperature loss, as the smaller distal portion allows for better bending and the heat-exchanger element can be compressed to fit within the sheath, optimizing space and reducing the overall catheter diameter.
Implementation Method 1
heat-exchanger element, which is disposed in a distal catheter portion of the catheter tube and is in fluid communication with the temperature-regulating lumens, so that a temperature-regulating circuit is formed
Implementation Method 2
efficiency of catheter-based hypothermia is also increased with the volume flow of the cooling fluid being passed through the lumens of the catheter
Implementation Method 3
the catheter tube has a smaller wall thickness in the distal catheter portion than in the proximal catheter portion
Data Source
AI summary
A medical catheter for hypothermic treatment with a catheter tube has at least one through-channel and at least two temperature control channels, at least one heat exchange element, in particular an expandable balloon, which is arranged in a distal catheter portion of the catheter tube and is fluidically connected to the temperature control channels in such a way that a temperature control circuit is formed. The catheter tube has a smaller external diameter in the distal catheter portion than in a proximal catheter portion.