Medtronic
March 17, 2014
Introduction: Medtronic is a business and educational program that uses advances in technology to manufacture heart stents. This start-up business has grown to be located in four different geographical regions in order to supply patients with adequate devices to equipped them for a better, more active life. As a field trip during freshman year, we were exposed to the inner workings of heart stents, including the design process, fatigue testing, implantation, and comparison to similar animal organs.
Heart Stents: Before heart stents, bypass operations were performed if a person contained a clogged artery. This surgery required the rerouting of an artery in order to skip over the passage way that was blocked. Heart stents are small flexible metal contraptions that open arteries in order to allow blood to flow more easily through the passageway. In order to decrease the chances of infection, bendable catheters are inserted into the femoral artery in the upper thigh. The rod is pushed through the patient, following the path of the circulatory system. This use makes the incision point smaller and the operation less risky. For a more detailed reason for heart stents and their purpose, visit my website page here. *Also has pictures.
My Favorite: The most interesting part of the field trip was the demonstration of the mechanics of a heart and the methods used to insert a heart stent. One of the scientist cut open a pig's heart to show the interior sections and the connecting veins and arteries. This portion showed the similarities between humans and animals. It was also an amazing visual to see the heart stents in action to hold open a pathway towards the heart. We were actually allowed to touch the organ and feel the weight of it; our class also got to touch the valves that controlled blood flow.
Another cool part of our field trip was the new techniques developed to place a heart stent safely inside a patient without as much potential for infections. New catheters have been produced so doctors no longer need to cut open an entire limb to access the damaged pathway. Instead, a small incision is made at the thigh and a long flexible rod is placed into the artery. Like a pipet, a scrolling wheel pushes the tube closer to the heart by following the natural path of the artery. Once the heart stent is in position, a button releases the material and it expands to fit the passage are exiting the tube. The remaining part of the catheter is extracted leaving the heart stent in place. This new method helps reduce the possibilities of infection and makes the surgery more efficient. I found it fascinating that one simple bending tube with mechanical controls at the base has the ability to travel through major parts of your body and safely carry and deposit a device effectively near your heart. I learned that doctors make the incision in an arm or leg, not directly near the heart.
Another cool part of our field trip was the new techniques developed to place a heart stent safely inside a patient without as much potential for infections. New catheters have been produced so doctors no longer need to cut open an entire limb to access the damaged pathway. Instead, a small incision is made at the thigh and a long flexible rod is placed into the artery. Like a pipet, a scrolling wheel pushes the tube closer to the heart by following the natural path of the artery. Once the heart stent is in position, a button releases the material and it expands to fit the passage are exiting the tube. The remaining part of the catheter is extracted leaving the heart stent in place. This new method helps reduce the possibilities of infection and makes the surgery more efficient. I found it fascinating that one simple bending tube with mechanical controls at the base has the ability to travel through major parts of your body and safely carry and deposit a device effectively near your heart. I learned that doctors make the incision in an arm or leg, not directly near the heart.
Fatigue Lab: The stents need to be thoroughly tested before being placed in a person for up to ten years. The materials and structure must be stable and sturdy enough to withstand mass amounts of blood placing pressure on the walls as it pumps through a body. In order to ensure the product is safe, the stents are placed under a simulation of vertical and horizontal movement to test the durability of the expansion. Each machine is timed to speed up the testing process by using hydrodynamic pulsation at an increased rate to take place in approximately three to six months(depending on the pressure force and number of meats per minutes). I thought it was interesting that the machines moved so quickly that human eyes could not detect the motion and we just saw a blur. however, a special strobe light placed on the shaking machine allowed us to view distinct motions of the contains. Each machine was able to hold several different stents to test simultaneously and compare the results under the exact same conditions.
Relations to Physics and Biology: This field trip showed the connections possible jobs and future careers had to the concepts we were learning about in class. The design process of hypothesizing, building models, and testing before reaching a final product was one of the major elements to many of the physics projects. The walk-through of the fatigue lab showed that people dedicate months of observations and reforms to test just one prototype before cycling through that process again. Our in class testing on models seemed like a small-scale application of the in depth tests occurring in this company. Physics were also used in the process of constructing testing machines. The machines in the fatigue lab used motion, force, and velocity to alter the conditions the prototype heart stents were placed under. Another feature that was similar to the classroom projects was the dissections. In both cases, animals were used as substitutes in order to view the internal dynamics of living organisms. In biology, we related the organ systems of frogs and perch fish to those of a human body; at Medtronic, pig hearts and livers were used to demonstrate the openings of valves and different chambers. Biology can apply to the new methods doctors and scientists are composing in order to prolong the human lifespan and redesign the circulatory operations.