C E Fill for atrial septal defect

Description

The Secundum of the Atrial Septal Defect is a disease that is most prevalent in young children, where a hole in the atrial wall of the heart causes deoxygenated and oxygenated blood to combine. This mixture may lead to many possible cardiac diseases. The AMPLATZER™ Septal Occluder is the current device that addresses this problem, however, there are a few issues in the design that pose as issues to the heart. Firstly, the device is composed of Nitinol, a metal alloy of nickel and titanium, which can cause allergies in patients because of the nickel present. Additionally, the metal mesh design causes cardiac tissue erosion, expanding the opening. With a larger hole, the device is prone to falling out of the atrial wall into the heart, ultimately causing embolisms. Because of the possible problems of the AMPLATZER™, I designed a prototype that combats these issues. The C E Fill aims to fill the hole with materials that the body does not reject. Using a collagen-elastin membrane, this new device can grow into the cardiac tissue, eventually creating a more stable atrial wall. After the device is inserted into the heart, agarose and methylcellulose hydrogel is injected into the membrane. The unique characteristic about this hydrogel is that it solidifies at human body temperature. Upon solidification, the flexible device expands to fill the hole - whatever shape and whatever size. I designed the C E Fill to come up with a better solution for a current method that has threats that are too risky for young patients.