Vacuum-Actuated Catheter Jacket for Shape Maintenance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical devices used for treating cardiac arrhythmia, such as catheters and guide sheaths, face challenges in navigating through tortuous vasculature while maintaining rigidity to apply pressure against target tissue without internal rods or tensioning devices, which reduces the inner lumen diameter and limits their usability.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising an elongate body with a plurality of annular segments and a jacket that transitions from a flexible to a rigid state when a vacuum is applied, allowing for navigation through vasculature and maintaining shape against tissue without internal rods or tensioning devices, using a vacuum source to increase frictional forces between segments and the jacket.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the catheter is made highly flexible to navigate through tortuous vasculature, then ease of navigation is improved, but the ability to maintain shape and exert pressure against target tissue deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter employs a dynamic structure with expandable segments that can transition between compressed and expanded states. The segments include radially expandable elements that allow the catheter to be flexible during navigation, then expand at the target site to maintain shape and exert pressure, resolving the contradiction between flexibility and rigidity
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter is divided into multiple segments that can independently expand or contract. This segmentation allows different portions of the catheter to have different mechanical properties - flexible for navigation, rigid for treatment - enabling the catheter to adapt its characteristics based on operational requirements
2Stability of the object's composition
If internal rods or tensioning devices are added to maintain catheter rigidity, then shape maintenance is improved, but device complexity and reduction of inner lumen diameter worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and eliminates the need for internal rods and tensioning devices by using an external vacuum source applied through the jacket. The vacuum provides the necessary radial force to maintain segment shape and catheter rigidity without requiring complex internal mechanical structures, thereby reducing device complexity while preserving shape maintenance capability
3Stability of the object's composition
If internal rods or tensioning devices are added to maintain catheter rigidity, then shape maintenance is improved, but inner lumen diameter deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
By removing internal rods and tensioning devices and replacing them with an external vacuum system, the inner lumen diameter is preserved. The vacuum applied through the jacket provides the necessary radial support force without occupying space within the lumen, maintaining full access for treatment devices
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
Enables easy navigation through the vasculature and maintains rigidity against target tissue, preserving the shape of the device for effective treatment without the need for internal rods or tensioning devices, ensuring sufficient inner lumen diameter for treatment devices.
Implementation Method 1
When a vacuum is applied to the jacket, the elongate body may be transitioned from a flexible state to a rigid state
Implementation Method 2
Activation of the vacuum source may cause the elongate body to transition from a flexible state to a rigid state
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for the delivery of a medical device to a treatment location. The device may include an elongate body, the elongate body including a plurality of annular segments and a jacket disposed about the plurality of annular segments and defining an interior space, and a vacuum source in fluid communication with the interior space of the jacket. When a vacuum is applied to the interior space of the jacket, the jacket may constrict about the plurality of annular elements, thereby increasing the frictional forces between the plurality of segments and between the plurality of segments and an inner surface of the jacket.