Stent with Intersecting and Interlocking Wire Columns
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional stents are not suitable for curved tubular organs such as the aorta, as they lack the necessary flexibility to effectively conform to curved sites, leading to potential dislodgment and inefficiency in treatment procedures like aortic aneurysm repair.
Innovation Solution
A stent design featuring intersecting and interlocking portions, with stretch assisting columns having more intersecting portions and contraction assisting columns having more interlocking portions, allowing for easy curvature to fit curved sites, is developed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a stent has uniform stretchability along its axial direction to prevent dislodgment, then axial stability is improved, but adaptability to curved tubular organs deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The stent applies local quality by creating different structural characteristics in different regions. Specifically, the first region contains a higher density of wire intersections relative to loops, providing greater stretchability and flexibility for curved sections, while the second region has fewer intersections relative to loops, providing enhanced axial anchoring stability. This non-uniform distribution allows the stent to simultaneously achieve curve adaptability in the first region and axial stability in the second region.
2Strength
If a stent is made rigid to maintain structural integrity, then strength is improved, but ease of curving deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The stent divides its structure into functionally distinct segments: wire intersections that provide rigidity and structural support, and loops that provide flexibility and curvature capability. By segmenting the stent into regions with different ratios of intersections to loops, it achieves both structural integrity and ease of curving in different sections.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the stent have different local qualities regarding wire intersection and loop density. The first region has more intersections relative to loops for flexibility, while the second region has fewer intersections relative to loops for strength, allowing the stent to be curved easily in appropriate sections while maintaining overall structural integrity.
Data Source
AI summary
A stent formed by weaving a wire into a tubular shape includes intersecting portions at which the wire intersects and interlocking portions at which the wire interlocks. In the stent, at least two stretch assisting columns are continuously disposed in a circumferential direction of the stent, each of the at least two stretch assisting columns including a larger number of the intersecting portions than the interlocking portions in an axial direction of the stent, and at least one contraction assisting column including a larger number of the interlocking portions than the intersecting portions in the axial direction is disposed. When the stent is equally divided in the circumferential direction by a plane including an axis of the stent and a first equally-divided region includes the at least two stretch assisting columns continuously disposed, a second equally-divided region includes a majority of the interlocking portions.