The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to improve outcomes for the 45,000 yearly ischemic stroke patients undergoing mechanical thrombectomy in the US. Mechanical thrombectomy, the act of reestablishing cerebral blood flow by relieving an obstructed blood vessel, is the primary treatment for qualifying patients. In reaching the obstruction, tortuous anatomy could lead to procedure failure and poor outcomes. Steerable microcatheters have been developed to increase the chances of a successful outcome. Currently available steerable catheters pull wires for their steering mechanism, these wires travel the entire length of the catheter. For long, tortuous anatomies, the friction between the wire and the catheter sheath increases drastically reducing the tip's range of motion. As the catheter diameter is scaled down to access narrower blood vessels (below 2 mm in diameter), friction, which is proportional to relative area, increases dramatically, making the catheter inoperable. Moreover, conventional fabrication at this scale becomes challenging or prohibitively expensive due to precision requirements. The proposed technology is a microcatheter to bypass this limitation and retain its steerability independent of the catheters course.
This I-Corps project is based on the development of a steerable microcatheter that utilizes a miniaturized actuator to achieve a maximum range of motion (360 degrees in 3D space). It uses both a actuation mechanism as well as a novel fabrication approach. The actuation mechanism avoids friction altogether, allowing for its range of motion to be independent of path tortuosity. In addition, the fabrication method is based on laminate assembly of laser micro-machined layers, which results in high-throughput manufacturing of devices with sub-millimeter precision. The result is a technology platform for developing accurate, steerable, miniature catheters at an unprecedented scale. This 360 degree directional catheter also may be piloted by a remote-controlled robotic system. With 5G transmission capabilities becoming readily available, in the future, stroke thrombectomies may be carried out in mobile units, while the proposed catheter is piloted by a physician remotely.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
