During percutaneous coronary interventions in the coronaries of the heart, it is often a necessity to remove obstructions from the blood vessels. Obstructions are removed using specialised instruments, such as atherectomy drills and balloon catheters. During removal, aspiration catheters are used in conjunction with these instruments in order to prevent small particles getting into the blood stream, which can cause a stroke, amongst others. These aspiration catheters use a pressure differential to remove the small particles from the blood stream.
Even though these catheters are successful in removing small particles from the blood stream, they are often plagued by various failure modes. For example, they are prone to clogging and are limited for transport of tissue through long and narrow tubes. Furthermore, the aspiration-force that is created does not only affect the desired tissue but also the surrounding tissue.
Therefore, in this assignment, you will develop a new type of flexible transport system that is not prone to these failure modes.
If you are interested in this assignment, please contact: Aimée Sakes, a.sakes@tudelft.nl