Sensor-Equipped Guidewire With Removable Hub For Image Guidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need for improved sensor-equipped instruments and devices for use in image-guided surgery procedures, particularly in ENT and sinus surgery, to enhance precision and navigation within the body.
Innovation Solution
The development of guidewires with sensors, such as electromagnetic coils, and a removable proximal hub that interfaces with an image guidance system, allowing real-time tracking of the guidewire's position within the body, enabling precise placement and subsequent advancement of therapeutic or diagnostic devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If sensors are integrated into guidewires for real-time tracking, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor is integrated within the guidewire structure, with the electromagnetic coil nested inside the guidewire body. The hub member contains the sensor assembly and electrical contacts, which are nested within the hub's internal structure. This nesting approach allows real-time tracking functionality to be incorporated without significantly increasing the external dimensions or visual complexity of the guidewire.
Solution Approach 2:
The hub member serves as an intermediary component that houses the sensor assembly and provides electrical connections between the sensor and the image guidance system. This intermediary structure allows the sensor functionality to be added to the guidewire system without requiring direct integration into the guidewire shaft itself, thereby managing complexity through modular design.
2Ease of operation
If a removable hub member is used to interface with the image guidance system, then ease of operation is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guidewire system is divided into distinct segments: the guidewire shaft, the removable hub member, and the sensor assembly. The hub member can be detached from the guidewire shaft, allowing the sensor-equipped hub to be connected to the image guidance system independently. This segmentation enables easy connection and disconnection for different surgical procedures while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The hub member is designed to be dynamically attachable and detachable from the guidewire shaft, rather than being permanently fixed. This dynamic connection allows the sensor system to be easily coupled with the image guidance system when needed and removed when not needed, providing operational flexibility without requiring complex permanent integration mechanisms.
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
This solution enables precise real-time tracking and positioning of guidewires during surgery, improving the accuracy of procedures like balloon dilation of paranasal sinuses, and facilitates the use of other devices by allowing them to be advanced over the guidewire for therapeutic or diagnostic tasks.
Implementation Method 1
a sensor located on or in the shaft, such sensor being operative to emit energy that may be used by an image guidance system for real time determination of the location of the sensor within a subject's body
Data Source
AI summary
Guidewires and methods useable in conjunction with image guidance systems to facilitate performance of diagnostic or therapeutic tasks at locations within the bodies of human or animal subjects.