Improved Performance of Neonatal Vascular Access Catheters via 3D Magnetic Printing

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Clinical treatment of infants in the neonatal intensive care unit NICU is particularly challenging due to their small anatomies medical instability and
immature physiological processes Treatment is often complicated by the lack of therapeutic devices and instrumentation designed specifically to accommodate this unique patient population For instance current vascular access catheters are not specifically designed and customized for the very small vasculature of neonatal patients which exacerbates common complications including vessel perforation thrombotic occlusions catheter breakage and infection Creating sophisticated patient specific neonatal catheters would dramatically reduce these complications and work to better serve this population D printing offers the ability to generate complex and patient specific D architectures Our collaborators at Northeastern University are pioneering D Magnetic Printing a new technique in which reinforcing ceramic fibers are aligned with magnetic fields during the printing process to create composites with highly tunable reinforcement architectures We will use D Magnetic Printing to produce strong flexible patient specific neonatal vascular access catheters Specifically we will generate customizable composite catheter tubing with enhanced wall stiffness and strength while maintaining flexibility burst strength and kink resistance Such a novel design approach will allow production of next generation neonatal vascular access catheters with thinner walls permitting reduction of catheter diameters and or higher fluid transport rates D Magnetic Printing of neonatal catheters offers the advantages of improved resistance to catheter sidewall collapse and kinking that often leads to catheter occlusion and higher fluid transport rates which
will minimize the probability of thrombus and fibrin sheath formation Furthermore the D printing technique is compatible with conventional catheter materials such as polyurethane and silicone and allows utilization of biocompatible fibers like hydroxyapatite facilitating regulatory
approval pathways The printing method is robust low cost and scalable In Phase I we will print a variety of catheter tubing with customized fiber architectures including longitudinal lateral and radial reinforcement using both polyurethane and silicone Sample characterization will be used to fine tune a finite element analysis model of the material This model will be used to design improved tubing for comparison to conventionally extruded tubing Our primary objective is to demonstrate the production of tubing with reduced wall thickness optimized mechanical properties and enhanced flow characteristics In Phase II this model will be used to design functional catheters having complex reinforcement architecture

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE In this program a novel Magnetic D Printing technique will be developed for printing pediatric catheters This technique will enable highly customized immediate printing of devices for a population that often has unique and underserved requirements The technique introduces a novel means of controlling the alignment of reinforcing fibers which will give the designer a powerful tool to improve critical catheter characteristics such as wall thickness flow rate and kink resistance which are especially important in the small sizes required by pediatric patients These improvements will ultimately improve performance and reduce catheter related complications