Versatile Delivery Catheter With Removable Hub For Guidewire Locking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current catheter designs for interventional procedures face challenges in efficiently and safely exchanging catheters due to complexities in vascular anatomy, particularly in the brain, where tortuous paths make it difficult to access target locations without compromising vascular access or causing additional complications.
Innovation Solution
The development of a versatile catheter system with an external securing system that locks the position of guidewires, allowing for secure exchange of catheters without disrupting the guidewire's position, and a removable hub system that facilitates easy connection and disconnection of catheters and guidewires.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a catheter is designed to navigate tortuous vascular pathways, then flexibility is improved, but rigidity for effective navigation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter shaft is divided into multiple segments with different flexibility characteristics, allowing the proximal portion to be more rigid for control while the distal portion remains flexible for navigating tortuous pathways. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by distributing rigidity and flexibility to different functional zones of the catheter.
Solution Approach 2:
Different sections of the catheter are designed with locally optimized properties - the proximal section has higher rigidity for operator control and force transmission, while the distal section has higher flexibility for navigating complex vascular anatomy. This local differentiation allows the catheter to simultaneously achieve both rigidity and flexibility where needed.
2Reliability
If guidewire position is secured during catheter exchange, then reliability is improved, but device complexity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
A hub system acts as an intermediary device that provides external securing mechanisms for the guidewire during catheter exchange. The hub includes features like locking mechanisms or friction-fit components that secure the guidewire position without requiring complex modifications to the guidewire or catheter themselves, thus maintaining reliability while controlling complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter or guidewire incorporates self-securing features such as self-locking mechanisms or friction-fit designs that automatically maintain guidewire position during exchange without requiring additional active securing components. This achieves reliable guidewire positioning through passive, inherent design features rather than complex active securing systems.
3Ease of operation
If catheter exchange is facilitated through removable hub system, then ease of operation is improved, but risk of vascular access loss deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The removable hub system incorporates pre-designed connection and disconnection mechanisms that allow catheter exchange to be performed in a controlled, predetermined sequence. The hub maintains secure engagement with the vascular access throughout the exchange process, and only releases when properly positioned, thereby facilitating easy exchange while preventing accidental loss of vascular access through preliminary design of the exchange protocol.
Solution Approach 2:
The hub acts as an intermediary component that remains attached to the vascular access during catheter exchange, allowing the catheter to be removed and replaced while the hub maintains the seal and access. This intermediary structure enables easy catheter exchange operations while the hub continuously protects against vascular access loss throughout the exchange procedure.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for adjusting instrumentation during a vascular interventional procedure includes a flexible shaft having a lumen for passing a flexible extending element therethrough, and a removable instrument hub releasably attachable to the flexible shaft. The hub may include a hub element with grasping feature(s) and an opening for passing the extending element therethrough, and a tubular member extending from a distal end of the hub element. The system may include mating feature(s) arranged on the proximal end of the flexible shaft and/or a distal end of the tubular member, the mating feature(s) configured to frictionally mate with an interior surface of the other of the flexible shaft or tubular member, such that, upon insertion of the mating feature(s), the hub is releasably coupled to the flexible shaft and the tubular member is in fluid communication with the flexible shaft.