Variable Pitch Coil for Endoluminal Vessel Ablation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical devices for occluding or closing body vessels are often too large in diameter to navigate small arteries and lack the necessary robustness and flexibility for effective endoluminal ablation procedures, posing challenges in treating certain medical conditions.
Innovation Solution
A medical device featuring a support with a coil that is electrically conductive and has varying windings with different pitches, allowing for resistive heating of body vessels, along with insulated wires for connecting to a power source, enabling effective ablation and occlusion while maintaining a minimal diameter for navigation through tortuous vessels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a catheter with an electrically-conductive element is provided for endoluminal ablation, then ablation capability is achieved, but the device diameter becomes too large to infiltrate small arteries
Solution Approach 1:
The device segments the catheter structure into separate functional components: a flexible delivery catheter for navigation and a deployable coil assembly for ablation. This segmentation allows the delivery catheter to maintain small diameter for vessel infiltration while the ablation coil is deployed separately at the target site
Solution Approach 2:
The electrically-conductive coil is nested within the catheter structure during delivery, allowing the ablation element to be contained within a small-diameter delivery system. The coil can be deployed from the catheter at the target site, enabling the small catheter to deliver a larger ablation element
2Ease of manufacture
If the coil windings are uniformly distributed, then manufacturing is simplified, but the thermal energy distribution during ablation becomes non-optimal
Solution Approach 1:
The coil windings are designed with non-uniform spacing where the pitch varies along the length of the coil. This creates local variations in winding density that correspond to different thermal energy requirements at different segments of the ablation target, with closer windings providing higher energy density where needed
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 device effectively heats and occludes body vessels, allowing for precise treatment of conditions like aneurysms and cancerous growths with reduced recovery times and minimized risks, as it can navigate small arteries and provide consistent thermal energy for ablation.
Implementation Method 1
the second portion allows for resistive heating in the body vessel
Data Source
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AI summary
The present disclosure provides for a device and methods of use to endoluminally ablate and/or occlude a body vessel using a current to perform resistive heating. The device includes a resistive coil, which in some embodiments has a portion with a first, higher average pitch which can be electrified, and a second, lower average pitch, which is not electrified but aids in relieving mechanical stress. The device may have a support, which may be a wire guide, around which the coil is disposed. The device may provide a minimal diameter and flexibility for navigation of tortuous vessels.