Telescoping Push Assembly Catheter for Tortuous Vasculature
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical catheters face challenges in navigating through complex vasculature with heavy tortuosity and calcification, particularly when delivering large medical devices, due to their rigidity and inability to extend reach effectively.
Innovation Solution
A medical catheter design featuring a push assembly with an elongate member and an inner liner and outer jacket, allowing the catheter to telescope out of an outer catheter, with a flexible and lower profile to navigate through tortuous paths, and a tapered shape for smooth delivery of devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the catheter is made rigid to deliver large medical devices, then the delivery capability is improved, but the ability to navigate through tortuous vasculature deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is divided into multiple segments including an outer catheter, inner liner, and push assembly that can telescope relative to each other. This segmentation allows the catheter to maintain rigidity for device delivery while navigating tortuous paths through telescopic extension and contraction of segments.
Solution Approach 2:
The push assembly is nested within the inner liner, which is nested within the outer catheter. This nested structure allows the catheter to collapse to a small profile for navigation through tortuous vasculature and expand to deliver large medical devices, resolving the contradiction between rigidity and adaptability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the catheter is made flexible to navigate through tortuous paths, then the maneuverability is improved, but the ability to deliver large medical devices deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter structure is designed to be dynamic, allowing it to transition between flexible and rigid states. The push assembly can be advanced to extend the catheter reach for navigating tortuous paths, then retracted to provide structural support for delivering large medical devices, enabling the catheter to adapt its mechanical properties based on operational needs.
3Length of moving object
If the catheter extends reach to navigate complex vasculature, then the navigation capability is improved, but the profile increases causing more interference
Solution Approach 1:
The telescopic push assembly nests within the inner liner when not in use, maintaining a low profile that minimizes interference during navigation. When extended reach is needed, the push assembly can be advanced outward to increase the catheter's effective length for navigating complex vasculature, then retracted to restore the compact profile.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~5
Figure 6
AI summary
A catheter (100) including an elongate body (102) and a push assembly (108). The elongate body may include an inner liner (104) defining an entry port (109) into a lumen (105), and an outer jacket (106). The push assembly may an elongate member (114) extending from a proximal portion to a distal portion, where a cross-section of the distal portion is D-shaped and tapers in a distal direction. Distal to a proximal end of the elongate body, a first portion of the elongate member may be positioned between a portion of the inner liner and a portion of the outer jacket, and proximal to the proximal end of the elongate body, a second portion of the elongate member may be positioned outside of the outer jacket and the inner liner.