Vascular Filter with Shape Memory Alloy Legs
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current filters designed to capture blood clots within the vasculature, such as in the inferior vena cava, face challenges in effectively preventing pulmonary embolism and maintaining stability within the body lumen, while also being removable.
Innovation Solution
A filter configuration with a tubular axial member and offset sets of legs, featuring barbs and a shape memory alloy composition, allows for expansion within the vasculature to capture clots and prevent migration, while being compressible for deployment through a catheter and expandable for effective clot capture.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the filter is designed to be removable, then ease of operation is improved, but stability and reliability of clot capture may worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The filter transitions between a compressed delivery configuration and an expanded functional configuration. The legs are movable relative to the axial member, allowing the filter to be compact during delivery through the catheter and then expand within the body lumen to provide stable clot capture. This dynamic transformation resolves the contradiction by providing both ease of deployment and reliable stability when deployed.
2Reliability
If the filter structure is expanded to capture clots effectively, then clot capture capability is improved, but device complexity and difficulty of deployment increase
Solution Approach 1:
The filter is divided into an axial member and multiple legs that can move independently. The legs are segmented structures with barbs that can engage with the body lumen wall. This segmentation allows the filter to achieve effective clot capture through the distributed leg structure while maintaining relative simplicity in the overall design, as each leg functions independently to provide stability and capture capability.
3Ease of operation
If the filter is made compressible for catheter deployment, then ease of operation is improved, but structural stability and clot capture effectiveness may worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The filter utilizes changes in physical state and configuration parameters. The shape memory alloy material changes its structural parameters in response to temperature or mechanical stimulus, transitioning from a compressed low-strength state suitable for catheter delivery to an expanded high-strength state that provides structural stability for effective clot capture. This parameter change resolves the contradiction between compressibility for deployment and structural stability for function.
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 filter effectively captures blood clots, prevents pulmonary embolism, and remains stable within the vasculature, facilitating easy deployment and removal, with the shape memory alloy ensuring reliable expansion and compression for optimal performance.
Implementation Method 1
The axial member may be formed from a shape memory alloy and the legs may be formed from the shape memory alloy
Implementation Method 2
allows for expansion within the vasculature to capture clots and prevent migration, while being compressible for deployment through a catheter
Data Source
AI summary
A filter, configured to be disposed within a body lumen, that includes one or more filtering zones. The filter may include one or more sets of legs, configured to interact with the body lumen wall in order to stabilize the position of the filter and to create a filtering structure. In some embodiments the filter may be integrally formed form a single tube of material.