Steerable Heart Implant for CHF via Septal Contact
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current treatments for congestive heart failure, such as surgical interventions and implants, while partially effective, often involve significant trauma and do not adequately address the progressive nature of the disease, particularly in preventing or reversing the effects of scar tissue formation post-heart attack.
Innovation Solution
The development of devices and methods that use tension members to bring the heart's septum and wall into contact, excluding scar tissue and reducing ventricular volume through minimally invasive procedures, potentially using biodegradable implants and antiproliferative agents to enhance therapeutic benefits and reduce tissue response.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If surgical interventions are used to treat congestive heart failure, then therapeutic effectiveness is improved, but patient trauma and invasiveness increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional open surgical mechanical interventions with a minimally invasive percutaneous delivery system. The implant is delivered through a catheter-based approach rather than requiring open chest surgery, thereby maintaining therapeutic effectiveness while significantly reducing patient trauma and invasiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The implant includes a flexible membrane or film structure that can be delivered in a compressed state through a catheter and then expanded in situ within the heart. This flexible structure allows minimally invasive delivery while achieving the desired therapeutic effect of excluding scar tissue and reducing ventricular volume.
2Manufacturing precision
If traditional surgical methods are used to exclude scar tissue, then ventricular volume reduction is achieved, but procedure complexity and recovery time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The implant is divided into multiple segments or components that can be delivered separately through a catheter and then assembled or deployed in situ. This segmentation allows for simplified delivery through narrow access points while achieving precise ventricular volume reduction through controlled deployment of each segment.
Solution Approach 2:
The implant employs dynamic deployment mechanisms where the structure transitions from a compressed delivery state to an expanded functional state after insertion. This dynamic transformation simplifies the delivery procedure while achieving the desired precision in ventricular volume reduction through controlled expansion within the heart chamber.
3Duration of action of stationary object
If permanent implants are used to reduce ventricular volume, then therapeutic durability is improved, but tissue response and inflammation increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs biodegradable materials that change their physical and chemical parameters over time. The implant maintains its structural integrity and therapeutic function during the critical healing period, then gradually degrades into harmless byproducts. This parameter change over time allows for durable therapeutic action during the needed period while minimizing long-term tissue response and inflammation.
Solution Approach 2:
The implant is designed to be temporarily permanent - it remains in place to perform its therapeutic function of excluding scar tissue and reducing ventricular volume, then gradually degrades and is absorbed by the body. This approach provides the durability needed for effective treatment while eliminating the long-term presence of foreign material that would cause chronic tissue response.
Data Source
AI summary
Devices, systems, and methods for treating a heart of a patient may make use of one or more implant structures which limit a size of a chamber of the heart, such as by deploying a tensile member to bring a wall of the heart toward (optionally into contact with) a septum of the heart.