Percutaneous Ventricle Remodeling via Solidifying Bags
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current treatments for dilated cardiomyopathy, which leads to heart failure, primarily focus on symptom management rather than addressing the shape deterioration or remodeling of the heart, and there is a lack of surgical or interventional devices for mechanical reshaping of the dilated heart.
Innovation Solution
A percutaneous method and apparatus using fluid-tight bags filled with a solidifying material to reshape the heart ventricle by expanding bags outside the heart and then pulling them together to reshape the ventricle, allowing for off-pump, beating-heart procedures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If current treatment methods (medication, pacemakers, defibrillators) are used, then symptom relief is achieved, but the actual cure of the disease and reversal of heart remodeling is not accomplished
Solution Approach 1:
The heart ventricle is divided into multiple segments (anterior, posterior, lateral, septal walls) with separate pads applied to each segment, allowing independent reshaping of different regions to achieve overall ventricular remodeling
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from two-dimensional surface padding to three-dimensional volumetric reshaping by using expandable bags that can be filled with fluid or solid material, creating volume displacement to pull heart walls together and reshape the ventricle cavity
2Reliability
If the Coapsys device is used to reshape the ventricle, then ventricular remodeling is improved, but the implantation requires median sternotomy on a beating heart which is highly invasive
Solution Approach 1:
Expandable bags filled with fluid or solidifying material serve as intermediaries between the external pulling force and the heart wall, allowing force application without direct surgical attachment to the beating heart and enabling percutaneous access
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical state parameter of the filling material from fluid to solid (via solidification), transforming the pads from flexible to rigid structures that can effectively pull and maintain heart wall repositioning
3Ease of operation
If pads are pulled together from within the heart to reshape the ventricle, then mechanical reshaping is achieved, but the pads must be delivered through small punctures or catheters requiring miniaturization
Solution Approach 1:
The pads are nested within collapsible delivery catheters that can be advanced through small punctures, allowing large-volume pads to be delivered through small access sites by collapsing the pads during delivery and expanding them after positioning
Solution Approach 2:
The delivery system transitions from a static small puncture access to a dynamic expandable catheter system that can expand the access site temporarily during pad delivery, then return to a small profile for removal
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
This approach enables effective reshaping of the heart ventricle, potentially improving heart function and reducing symptoms of heart failure without the need for invasive surgeries like median sternotomy.
Implementation Method 1
filled with a solidifying material to reshape the heart ventricle by expanding bags outside the heart and then pulling them together
Data Source
AI summary
The ventricle of a heart can be reshaped by passing a plurality of catheters from inside the ventricle to outside the ventricle through holes in the ventricle wall. Fluid-tight bags are then delivered through the catheters and expanded outside the ventricle to a diameter that is larger than the holes. A fluid substance is introduced into the bags, and the fluid substance is configured to solidify into solid pads that are also larger than the holes. The solid pads are then pulled towards each other and locked in position in order to reshape the ventricle.