Thrombectomy Catheter with Expandable Tip and Rotating Shaft
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional thrombectomy devices are ineffective for large clot burdens and organized clots, and can cause distal embolization and vascular damage due to their mechanical mechanisms.
Innovation Solution
A thrombectomy system with an aspiration catheter and an expandable tip that transitions between retracted and expanded configurations, featuring a funnel-shaped profile and a rotating shaft to engage and break clots, allowing for efficient clot removal without causing significant vascular damage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If mechanical thrombectomy devices with distal cutting or macerating mechanisms are used, then clot removal capability is improved, but vascular damage and distal embolization increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical cutting and macerating mechanisms with an aspiration-based system that uses negative pressure to remove clots. The expandable tip creates a seal against the vessel wall, and vacuum pressure draws the thrombus into the catheter for removal, eliminating the need for distal mechanical disruption that causes embolization and vascular injury
Solution Approach 2:
The expandable tip acts as an intermediary element that interfaces between the aspiration catheter and the thrombus. It expands to engage the clot and create a sealed environment, allowing vacuum pressure to effectively draw the thrombus into the catheter without requiring direct mechanical contact with cutting elements in the vessel lumen
2Device complexity
If conventional aspiration catheters are used, then device simplicity is maintained, but effectiveness with large clot burdens and organized clots decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter incorporates an expandable tip that can dynamically change its configuration from a compressed delivery state to an expanded working state. This dynamic expansion increases the tip diameter to accommodate large and organized clots, improving aspiration effectiveness while maintaining a simple catheter body design for navigation
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter is segmented into distinct functional zones: a simple navigable body, an expandable tip section, and an aspiration lumen. This segmentation allows the complex function of expanding and aspirating large clots to be isolated to specific components while maintaining overall device simplicity
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system effectively removes large clots from vessels with reduced risk of embolization and vascular damage, facilitating efficient thrombus ingestion and removal through a combination of vacuum pressure and mechanical reshaping.
Implementation Method 1
a vacuum source configured to apply a vacuum pressure within the second lumen to draw a thrombus into the second lumen
Implementation Method 2
the expandable tip in the expanded configuration is configured to withstand collapse from pressure gradients being generated within the expandable tip as the vacuum pressure acts on the thrombus within the expandable tip
Data Source
AI summary
Described herein are systems, devices, and methods for aspiration and mechanical thrombectomy. In some embodiments, a thrombectomy device for removing a thrombus from a vessel can include a handle assembly, a vacuum source, an aspiration catheter with an expandable distal portion, and a flexible shaft configured to rotate within the aspiration catheter.