Reprocessing of uni-directional Biosense Webster ablation catheters: a novel disassembly method

Abstract

Annually, around 180,000 cardiac ablation procedures are performed as a result of people experiencing cardiac arrhythmia’s. During this ablation procedure, an ablation catheter is used to scar the problematic cardiac tissue after which the arrhythmia will stop. The ablation catheter is discarded after one single use. Incineration of these ablation catheters not only means destruction of valuable product, but also additional carbon emissions and pollution. The goal of this research is to design a novel disassembly method for the Thermocool Smarttouch SF Uni-directional Catheter (TAC) to enable extraction of the most yielding parts and/or materials. By means of a Hotspot Map and a part-specific cost estimation the most yielding parts (or PoIs) of the TAC were determined to be the shell, the ring electrodes and the electronics unit. The novel disassembly method was designed with those PoIs in mind and consists of two separate entities: a disassembly prototype (designed to enable extraction of the determined PoIs) and an ultrasonic cleaning stage (to further purify the extracted PoIs). The novel disassembly method was validated and indeed proved to be extracting the PoIs in a more successful, pure, and reasonably timely way compared to a previously performed rough disassembly. Therefore, the outcome of project is successful. However, a critical note must be introduced. Sustainability-wise the outcome is promising, however, from a business standpoint this could be more difficult. Almost all extracted PoIs will be damaged to some extent, and rules say only virgin materials can be used for the development of new catheters: only the costs of the extracted raw material will be yielded. All value added during the manufacturing stage is lost. Taking into account the additional costs of disinfection, shipping, labour and further reprocessing methods, this novel disassembly method would possibly cost more than it would recover. Other opportunities like multiple uses, detachable (sub)assemblies or alternative business cases should be explored.