Thin-Walled Balloon Catheter for Intracranial Dilation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current balloon catheters are not suitable for treating intracranial artery-related lesions due to their inability to effectively expand and navigate the tortuous and small intracranial vessels without causing damage, as they often require higher performance and are prone to over-expansion or vessel damage.
Innovation Solution
A balloon catheter with a rapid exchange structure, featuring a thinner balloon wall (10-15 microns) and lower nominal dilation pressure (3-4 atm) with a higher rated burst pressure (10-12 atm), combined with a coaxial structure and a spiral transition member, designed for improved navigability and safety to minimize vessel damage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a common balloon catheter is used under nominal pressure for intracranial vessel dilation, then the balloon can expand, but it easily causes damage to the blood vessels
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the pressure parameter by designing a balloon with low nominal pressure (3-4 atm) and high rated burst pressure (10-12 atm). This parameter optimization allows the balloon to achieve adequate dilation at low pressures while maintaining high safety margins, preventing vessel damage from over-expansion.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a thin-walled balloon structure with wall thickness of 10-15 microns. This thin film design enables the balloon to expand more compliantly at lower pressures, distributing force more evenly across the vessel wall and reducing the risk of barotrauma while maintaining effective dilation.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a common balloon catheter is used below nominal pressure for intracranial vessel dilation, then vessel damage is reduced, but the balloon cannot fully expand
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the pressure parameters by setting nominal pressure at 3-4 atm and rated burst pressure at 10-12 atm. This creates a wide safety margin where the balloon can achieve full expansion at low nominal pressure while maintaining adequate headroom before reaching dangerous pressure levels, ensuring both complete dilation and vessel safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent designs the balloon with dynamic pressure characteristics that allow progressive expansion. The balloon can achieve full dilation at low nominal pressure (3-4 atm) while maintaining the capability to withstand higher pressures (10-12 atm burst pressure) if needed, providing dynamic adaptability to varying vessel requirements.
3Strength
If a balloon with thicker wall is used for intracranial vessel dilation, then burst pressure resistance is improved, but dilation pressure requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a thin-walled balloon structure with wall thickness of 10-15 microns. This thin film design reduces the balloon's own structural requirements, allowing it to expand at low dilation pressures (3-4 atm nominal) while achieving adequate burst pressure resistance (10-12 atm rated) through optimized material properties and geometric design rather than increased wall thickness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs composite material construction for the balloon wall, combining materials that provide high strength-to-thickness ratio. This allows the thin-walled structure (10-15 microns) to achieve rated burst pressure of 10-12 atm while maintaining low nominal dilation pressure of 3-4 atm, resolving the contradiction between wall thickness, burst resistance, and dilation pressure requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
The present application relates to a balloon catheter, which is a rapid exchange structure and has a balloon catheter body and a hub, wherein the balloon catheter body has a push member, a transition member, a balloon loading member, a balloon, a imaging mark and a tip head, the balloon loading member comprises an outer tube and an inner tube, a distal end of the handle is connected with a proximal end of the push member, a proximal end of the transition member extends from a distal end of the push member, a distal end of the transition member is nested inside a proximal end of the outer tube of the balloon loading member, the balloon loading member loads the balloon, the tip head is provided on a distal end of the balloon, the imaging mark is provided on the balloon loading member, characterized in that the balloon has a wall thickness of 10-15 microns, the balloon has a nominal dilation pressure of 3-4 atm, and the balloon catheter has a rated burst pressure of is 10-12 atm.