A New Catheter Design for Precise Stent Delivery

Summary

UCLA researchers in the Department of Radiological Sciences have designed a catheter that increases stent delivery precision.

Background

Current endovascular procedures use a metallic expandable stent, which is laser-cut or braided, to expand a lesion or to cover a target lesion. Braided stents are limited by “foreshortening”, a phenomena where the stent length changes while it is constrained and unconstrained. Foreshortening is also observed in laser cut stents, and makes it challenging for physicians to place a stent with high accuracy. One way to increase the accuracy of stent placement is to put a radiopaque marker in the target lesion.

Innovation

UCLA researchers have developed a novel catheter design with high stent delivery precision. Multiple radiopaque marker bands are used to indicate both the true length and unconstrained length of the stent. This new information will allow physicians to estimate the length of a tortuous lesion and to anticipate foreshortening of stents with multiple sizes. This design will simplify the stent delivery procedure in catheters while increasing precision.

Applications

Stents for treating endovascular aneurysms

Advantages

• High precision stent delivery 
• Simplified delivery procedure
• Easy to integrate into existing systems

Patent Status

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