Treatment of stroke and intracranial aneurysms will benefit from technologies that enable access and deployment of implements into small arteries in the brain. Outcomes of vascular procedures cart be improved by employing miniature structures made of highly compliant metal to reinforce weakened vascular tissues and to isolate hemorrhage sites from the blood flow. Minimally invasive procedures using microcatheter-based techniques about will be enhanced by availability of these tools. Endovascular devices fabricated of titanium-nickel thin film will enable the use of stents, filters, snares, retrievers, and endolumninal reconstruction within blood vessels too small, too diseased, or too tortuous to be treated with existing technology. Highly flexible, durable, bioconipatible material created by vacuum sputter deposition will be formed into cones, cylinders, and other shapes, fenestrated using micromachining photolithography, and delivered by microcatheters to lesion sites where the shape-changing characteristics of these alloys will be exploited to repair, reinforce, and protect vascular tissues. The objective of this research program is to fabricate micro-devices for the treatment of aneurysms, test their thermo-mechanical properties, demonstrate their efficacy through testing in simulated blood vessels, and prepare for their use in animal tests and human clinical trials.
These novel medical devices will greatly benefit those patients with aneurysms in the intracranial circulation. There is an enormous worldwide market for minimally invasive therapeutic modalities; this should create great interest in catheter or endoscope based delivery platforms for medical prosthetic devices that can be deployed within the body and assume a predetermined and stable configuration.
