Stent With Interlocking Segments For Tortuous Vessel Conformability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Balloon expandable stents are prone to permanent deformation in high-motion environments due to their inflexibility and lack of elasticity, limiting their ability to conform to tortuous vessels and withstand longitudinal compression and bending loads.
Innovation Solution
The stent design features interconnected axial segments with interlocking joints that maintain engagement during delivery and disengage during radial expansion, allowing for longitudinal and circumferential movement, providing resistance to mechanical loads and preventing jamming, while minimizing tissue interaction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If balloon expandable stents are used to provide greater radial force and circumferential compression resistance, then radial support performance is improved, but longitudinal flexibility and ability to conform to tortuous vessels deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The stent is divided into multiple axially-spaced segments that are coupled together by interlocking joints. Each segment can move independently relative to adjacent segments, allowing the stent to flex and conform to tortuous vessels while maintaining radial support through the coupled structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The interlocking joints between segments are designed to allow relative movement between segments in response to longitudinal compression and bending loads. This dynamic capability enables the stent to adapt to vessel motion and tortuosity while maintaining structural integrity and radial support.
2Strength
If balloon expandable stents are used to provide greater radial force, then circumferential compression resistance is improved, but inflexibility and lack of elasticity increase
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the stent structure, each individual segment can deform elastically in response to bending and compression loads, while the overall stent maintains circumferential compression resistance through the coupled segments. The segmentation allows localized flexibility without compromising global structural strength.
Solution Approach 2:
The interlocking joints are designed with specific geometric parameters that allow controlled relative movement between segments. This enables the stent to exhibit elastic behavior under physiological loads while maintaining the radial force and circumferential compression resistance provided by the balloon expandable structure.
3Stability of the object's composition
If stent segments are coupled together to maintain structural integrity, then radial support is improved, but ability to accommodate high-level motion and bending loads deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The interlocking joints are designed to allow dynamic relative movement between segments in response to bending and motion loads. This enables the stent to accommodate high-level motion in tortuous vessels like the SFA while maintaining structural integrity through the coupled segment architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The segmented structure allows each segment to move independently relative to adjacent segments, accommodating bending and motion loads. The interlocking joints maintain structural integrity by keeping segments coupled during delivery and deployment, while allowing controlled relative movement during physiological operation.
4Manufacturing precision
If interlocking joints are designed to maintain engagement during delivery, then stent positioning accuracy is improved, but complexity of the coupling structure increases
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling structure is divided into discrete interlocking joints between segments, each with simple engagement features. This segmentation allows the complex function of maintaining positioning accuracy to be achieved through multiple simple, repeatable joint designs rather than a single complex coupling mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The interlocking joints are designed to automatically engage and maintain coupling between segments during delivery and deployment without requiring additional actuation or control mechanisms. The joints self-maintain the coupled state throughout the delivery process, ensuring positioning accuracy while minimizing system complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
Examples of a stent are provided where the stent has interlocking joints removably coupling adjacent axial stent segments. Mating elements forming the interlocking joints maintain circumferential and axial engagement when the stent is in the radially compressed configuration, for example, during tracking of the stent to a treatment site of a body vessel, and become disengaged during radial expansion of the stent. The length of mating elements may be sized as large as the strut width. When disengaged, the disconnected the axial stent segments remain discrete stent structures separated from one another along the point of treatment.