US 12,239,808 B2
Hand tool for aiding in insertion of a trans-round window membrane catheter for micropump-mediated acute and chronic inner-ear drug delivery
Vishal Tandon, Somerville, MA (US); Ernest Kim, Cambridge, MA (US); and Jeffrey Borenstein, West Roxbury, MA (US)
Assigned to Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US)
Filed by Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US)
Filed on Nov. 20, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/100,335.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/938,561, filed on Nov. 21, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2021/0154452 A1, May 27, 2021
Int. Cl. A61M 31/00 (2006.01)
CPC A61M 31/002 (2013.01) [A61M 2205/02 (2013.01); A61M 2205/04 (2013.01); A61M 2205/3337 (2013.01); A61M 2205/583 (2013.01); A61M 2210/0662 (2013.01)] 11 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system, comprising:
a cannula comprising a first end coupled with a micropump and a second end comprising a cannula tip and a stopper positioned at a first predetermined distance from the cannula tip, the stopper configured to enable the cannula tip to be inserted through an anatomic membrane and into a cochlea of a patient, the cannula tip comprising a coating configured to create a seal with the anatomic membrane responsive to insertion of the cannula tip through the anatomic membrane; and
a handpiece configured to introduce the cannula to the patient, the handpiece comprising:
a channel defined by a tool shaft of the handpiece, the channel configured to receive the cannula;
a tip portion coupled with the tool shaft and comprising an outlet in communication with the channel, the tip portion configured to pierce the anatomic membrane of the patient; and
a collar coupled with the tip portion at a second predetermined distance from the outlet, the collar configured to seat with an anatomic structure of the patient and control a distance that the tip portion can project into the cochlea of the patient,
wherein the handpiece is configured to be withdrawn from an ear of the patient responsive to seating the cannula into the anatomic structure of the patient, and
wherein the micropump comprises one or more first layers defining one or more fluid channels, a fluid storage capacitor, and a reservoir, and one or more second layers comprising a pump, the one or more first layers separated from the one or more second layers by a membrane, the membrane forming a ceiling of the fluid storage capacitor, the micropump configured to:
pump a first fluid from the reservoir into the cochlea of the patient using the pump and the fluid storage capacitor, the first fluid pumped via a micropump outlet coupled to the one or more fluid channels and the cannula, and
subsequently withdraw a volume of a second fluid from the cochlea of the patient via the micropump outlet and the cannula.