Variable Stiffness Medical Catheter with Reinforced Sections
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Solution Overview
Problem
Medical tubing and catheters require varying physical characteristics, such as stiffness, flexibility, and mechanical strength, to facilitate insertion and movement through narrow body orifices while minimizing tissue injury and resisting tearing, but existing manufacturing methods fail to precisely control these properties along the catheter length.
Innovation Solution
The manufacturing process involves using a core mandrel and liner with reinforcement filaments wound at varying angles and pitches, combined with a polymer coating, to create sections with specific stiffness and flexibility, allowing for precise control of catheter properties and smooth transitions between them.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the catheter is made sufficiently stiff to enable insertion and movement through narrow body orifices and withstand high bursting pressure, then the catheter can maintain structural integrity and resist tearing, but it becomes difficult to conform to body shapes and may cause injury to the interior wall of vessels
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is constructed with different sections having different physical properties. The proximal section has different stiffness and flexibility characteristics compared to the distal section, allowing the catheter to be stiff enough for insertion while having softer sections that can conform to body shapes and minimize tissue injury.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter employs composite construction with multiple layers including an inner tube, outer tube, and reinforcement elements. This composite structure enables different sections to have tailored mechanical properties, combining strength where needed with flexibility in other areas to prevent tissue damage.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the catheter is made sufficiently soft and flexible to conform to body shapes, then it minimizes injury to vessel walls, but it loses the ability to withstand high bursting pressure and resist tearing during use
Solution Approach 1:
Different sections of the catheter have different flexibility characteristics. The distal section can be made softer to conform to body shapes and minimize tissue injury, while the proximal section maintains higher stiffness to withstand handling forces and resist tearing during removal against tissue resistance.
Solution Approach 2:
The multi-layer composite structure allows the catheter to achieve both flexibility and strength. The inner tube provides flexibility for conforming to body shapes, while the outer tube and reinforcement elements provide the necessary mechanical strength to withstand bursting pressure and resist tearing.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the catheter has varying physical properties along its length to achieve desired functionality, then it can balance insertion ease and structural integrity, but existing manufacturing methods fail to precisely control these properties
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is divided into distinct sections (proximal and distal) with different physical properties. This segmentation allows each section to be optimized for its specific function while maintaining precise control over the physical properties through the manufacturing process using a core mandrel and controlled polymer deposition.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure relates generally to medical tubing and methods of manufacturing medical tubing. In particular, the present disclosure relates to medical catheters and methods of manufacturing medical catheters, including rapid exchange catheters. In some embodiments, catheters of the present disclosure have varying stiffness or rigidity along their length. In some embodiments, catheters of the present disclosure have a guiding portion with a different color than a main body portion. In some embodiments, catheters of the present disclosure have wrapped filaments imbedded therein to provide structural integrity and desired handling characteristics for the catheter. Additional aspects of the present disclosure are apparent from the detailed description.