Vascular Filter with Spacer and Converging Portion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vascular filters face challenges in securely anchoring within the vessel wall without causing trauma, maintaining a small profile for minimally invasive delivery, and effectively directing blood clots to the center for dissolution, while also facilitating easy removal.
Innovation Solution
A vascular filter design featuring a first region with a converging filter portion and a second region that flares in the expanded position, incorporating spacers to center the filter and a retrieval structure for easy removal, made from shape memory materials like Nitinol, allowing for secure anchoring and atraumatic engagement with the vessel wall.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the filter is securely anchored within the vessel wall, then the filter stability is improved, but the vessel wall may be damaged or traumatized
Solution Approach 1:
The filter employs a flexible, compliant structure that can deform and adapt to the vessel wall contours, distributing anchoring forces over a larger area to prevent localized trauma while maintaining stable positioning within the vessel
Solution Approach 2:
The filter incorporates dynamic elements that allow it to adjust its configuration in response to vessel movement and pressure changes, maintaining secure anchoring without exerting excessive static force that could damage the vessel wall
2Ease of operation
If the filter is collapsed to a small size, then the ease of delivery is improved, but the filtering capability is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The filter is designed with a nested or telescoping structure that allows the filtering elements to be collapsed within each other during delivery, minimizing the profile for insertion while preserving the full filtering surface area for when the filter is deployed in the vessel
Solution Approach 2:
The filter consists of multiple segmented filtering elements that can be independently collapsed or compressed, allowing the entire filter assembly to be reduced to a small delivery profile while maintaining the integrity and functionality of each filtering segment upon deployment
3Reliability
If the filter directs blood clots to the center of the vessel, then the clot dissolution is improved, but the filter structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The filter incorporates curved or conical surfaces that naturally guide blood clots toward the central flow path through geometric shaping, utilizing fluid dynamics principles rather than complex mechanical structures to achieve clot redirection and enhance dissolution
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, reduces tissue ingrowth for easier removal, and maintains a low profile for minimally invasive delivery, ensuring secure anchoring and efficient clot dissolution while minimizing vessel distortion.
Implementation Method 1
made from shape memory materials like Nitinol, allowing for secure anchoring and atraumatic engagement with the vessel wall
Data Source
AI summary
A vessel filter movable between a collapsed position for delivery to the vessel and an expanded position for placement within the vessel, and having a filter portion having a converging region to direct particles toward the center. The filter portion converges into a tubular portion. The second region is flared in the expanded position to have a transverse dimension increasing in a direction away from the filter portion and includes a vessel engaging portion. The first region has a spacer to keep the filter more toward a center of a vessel, wherein in the collapsed position the spacer extends axially in an elongated position cranially of the cranial end of the filter and in the expanded position the spacer forms a looped region extending radially with respect to a longitudinal axis of the filter. The spacer has a first end attached to the internal surface of the tubular portion and extends within the tubular portion and emerges cranially from the tubular region to form the looped region.