Sterile Heart Pump Container with Compressed-Passage Implantation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mechanical heart pumps require reliable sterile packaging to prevent contamination during transport and implantation, as contact with non-sterile objects can compromise their functionality.
Innovation Solution
A container with a receiving space delimited by closure elements, allowing passage of a catheter and designed to accommodate a compressible and expandable heart pump, ensuring sterility and preventing direct contact during handling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the heart pump is kept in a sterile container during transport and implantation, then sterility is maintained and contamination risk is reduced, but the complexity of the packaging system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The heart pump device is nested within a sterile container that includes multiple receiving spaces. The pump device itself contains nested components (rotor within pump housing, drive shaft within catheter). This nesting structure maintains sterility while organizing the system in a manageable way that doesn't excessively increase complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The packaging system is segmented into distinct receiving spaces: a first receiving space for the heart pump device and a second receiving space for the catheter. This segmentation allows independent sterilization and handling of components while maintaining overall system sterility, reducing the complexity burden of treating the entire system as one unit.
2Reliability
If the opening in the closure elements is dimensioned to allow only compressed heart pump passage, then sterility is maintained during implantation, but the ease of operation during removal is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The heart pump device is designed to be dynamically compressible and expandable. During implantation, the pump is compressed to pass through the dimensioned opening while maintaining sterility. Once implanted, the pump expands to its functional size. This dynamic property resolves the contradiction by allowing the pump to adapt its size for different operational phases.
Solution Approach 2:
The physical state of the heart pump changes between compressed and expanded conditions. The pump is compressed (changing its dimensional parameters) to pass through the restricted opening in the sterile container, then expanded to its operational dimensions after implantation. This parameter change enables both sterility protection and functional operation.
3Ease of operation
If the heart pump is designed to be compressible and expandable for implantation, then the ease of implantation is improved, but the structural complexity of the pump increases
Solution Approach 1:
The heart pump housing and rotor components utilize flexible materials and thin-walled structures that enable compression and expansion. The pump housing acts as a flexible shell that can be compressed for implantation through blood vessels and then expands to its functional shape once positioned in the heart, reducing the need for complex mechanical expansion mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a container for a heart pump device with a first receiving space for a compressible and expandable heart pump, wherein the first receiving space is delimited on several sides, in particular on all sides, by one or more closure elements and is closed off to the outside for preventing a contacting of the heart pump, wherein the closure elements) leave free an opening for the passage of a catheter from the outside into the first receiving space, wherein the diameter of the opening is dimensioned such that the heart pump can pass this exclusively in a condition which is at least partly compressed compared to the expanded condition. For implantation, the heart pump in the container can firstly be operated by trial in the container whilst feeding a rinsing fluid and can then be pulled through the opening amid simultaneous compression, into a sheath element.