Multi-Functional Wire Guide Assembly with Movable Mandril
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional wire guides face conflicting requirements for flexibility and stiffness during percutaneous vascular procedures, necessitating the exchange of multiple wire guides with different properties, which increases procedure complexity, duration, and risk of contamination.
Innovation Solution
A multi-functional wire guide assembly with a stationary mandril and an axially movable mandril within a tubular housing, allowing for configuration changes to provide varying tip loads, enabling navigation through tortuous vessels and lesions with reduced need for device exchange.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a wire guide is made stiff to pass through lesions and support medical devices, then it can successfully navigate tortuous passages, but it becomes too rigid for smaller and more tortuous passageways
Solution Approach 1:
The wire guide is divided into multiple segments or zones with different stiffness characteristics. The proximal portion has higher stiffness for lesion crossing and device support, while the distal portion has lower stiffness for navigating tortuous passages. This segmentation allows the single wire guide to perform multiple functions that previously required multiple devices.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the wire guide are赋予 different mechanical properties to meet local requirements. The proximal segment is designed with higher rigidity for pushing through lesions and supporting catheters, while the distal segment is designed with higher flexibility for navigating curved vasculature. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction between needing stiffness and flexibility in different regions.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple wire guides with different properties are used during a procedure, then both stiff and flexible navigation requirements are met, but procedure complexity, duration, and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple wire guide functions (stiff lesion-crossing capability and flexible navigation capability) are merged into a single integrated device. The wire guide incorporates both stiff proximal and flexible distal segments, eliminating the need to exchange between multiple wire guides during the procedure. This reduces procedural complexity while maintaining the full range of stiffness properties needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The wire guide is designed as a universal device that can perform multiple functions: navigating tortuous passages, crossing lesions, and supporting various medical devices. By incorporating variable stiffness along its length, a single wire guide replaces what would traditionally require multiple specialized wire guides, reducing the number of device exchanges needed.
3Adaptability or versatility
If wire guides are exchanged during a procedure to change stiffness properties, then adaptability to different passageways is achieved, but the risk of contamination and infection increases
Solution Approach 1:
The ability to adjust stiffness properties is merged into a single wire guide device that remains in place throughout the procedure. Instead of exchanging multiple wire guides (which creates contamination opportunities), the single multi-functional wire guide allows the operator to utilize different stiffness characteristics along its length, eliminating repeated sterile field breaches and reducing infection risk.
4Adaptability or versatility
If a single wire guide is designed to be flexible for tortuous passages, then it can navigate curved vasculature, but it lacks the stiffness needed to pass through lesions and support devices
Solution Approach 1:
The wire guide is segmented into proximal and distal portions with different mechanical properties. The distal portion is designed flexible for navigating tortuous passages, while the proximal portion is designed stiff for lesion crossing and device support. This segmentation allows the single wire guide to simultaneously provide both flexibility and stiffness where needed.
Solution Approach 2:
Different mechanical properties are assigned to different locations along the wire guide. The distal end has local flexibility for navigation, while the proximal end has local stiffness for force transmission and support. This local quality differentiation resolves the contradiction between overall flexibility and localized stiffness requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
A multi-functional wire guide assembly includes an elongate tubular housing having a length and defining a lumen extending from an open proximal end of the elongate tubular housing to an open distal end of the elongate tubular housing. A first mandril is positioned within the lumen, extends a majority of the length of the elongate tubular housing, and has a fixed position relative to the elongate tubular housing. A second mandril is positioned within the lumen, has a length greater than the length of the elongate tubular housing, and is axially movable relative to the elongate tubular housing. The multi-functional wire guide assembly has a first configuration in which a distal tip of the second mandril is proximally spaced from a distal segment of the elongate tubular housing and a second configuration in which the distal tip of the second mandril is axially aligned with the distal segment.