Electrotome with auxiliary illumination

Abstract

The present application relates to the field of electrode knives, in particular to an electrode knife with auxiliary lighting. It comprises a knife body, a knife head located at the distal end of the knife body, and a lighting assembly arranged inside the knife body. The assembly is composed of at least one lighting source, a light transmission element, and a composite light guide component. One end of the light transmission element is optically coupled with the lighting source, and the other end extends to the knife head area and is optically connected with the composite light guide component, thereby efficiently conducting and uniformly diffusing light to the surgical operation area. The electrode knife can realize local, direct and stable lighting of the surgical site by embedding the lighting source inside and using optical fibers to conduct light to specific areas of the knife surface, effectively reducing the dependence on external lighting and its inherent limitations.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to the field of electrode knives, and in particular to an electrode knife with auxiliary illumination. Background Technology

[0002] Electrosurgical devices such as electrode scalpels are widely used in surgical procedures. They utilize high-frequency current to cut tissue and promote coagulation, providing crucial support for surgical operations. However, traditional electrode scalpels typically lack built-in illumination. Local lighting during surgery relies primarily on external light sources such as operating room lamps or headlamps worn by the surgeon. While this type of lighting meets basic visualization needs to some extent, it often results in insufficient illumination, shadowing, or light failing to reach the target area in deep surgical fields, narrow cavities, or at specific angles, affecting the clarity of the surgical field and the accuracy of the procedure.

[0003] The main reason for these problems lies in the spatial separation of external light sources and surgical instruments. As a general lighting device, the shadowless lamp's light is easily blocked by the surgeon's hands, other instruments, or the patient's own anatomical structure, making it difficult to fully cover every detail of the complex surgical field. While headlamps can move with the surgeon's field of vision, their illumination range, brightness, and focusing ability are limited, especially during prolonged surgeries where head movement can cause decreased light stability. Furthermore, in minimally invasive or endoscopic surgeries, although illumination can be provided by the endoscope's built-in light source, insufficient illumination continuity still exists in open surgeries or scenarios requiring frequent instrument switching. These factors can all lead to deviations in the surgeon's judgment of tissue layers, blood vessel distribution, or lesion boundaries, thereby affecting surgical precision and safety.

[0004] Therefore, it is of great significance to develop an auxiliary lighting system that can be integrated with the electrode knife and directly act on the operating area. Utility Model Content

[0005] The purpose of this application is to overcome at least one deficiency in the prior art and provide an electrode knife with auxiliary lighting. This electrode knife can achieve local, direct and stable lighting of the surgical site by embedding a lighting source inside and using optical fiber to transmit light to a specific area of ​​the blade surface, effectively reducing reliance on external lighting and its inherent limitations.

[0006] To achieve the above objectives, this application discloses an electrode knife with auxiliary lighting, which includes a blade, a blade tip located at the distal end of the blade, and an lighting assembly disposed inside the blade. The assembly comprises at least one lighting source, a light-conducting element, and a composite light-guiding component.

[0007] One end of the light transmission element is optically coupled to the illumination source, and the other end extends to the blade area and is optically connected to the composite light guide component, thereby efficiently transmitting and uniformly diffusing light to the surgical operation area.

[0008] Specifically, the composite light guide component adopts a layered structure design. Its substrate is made of a high-transmittance polymer material, and the outer surface facing tissue contact is a smooth, transparent layer to ensure low friction and avoid tissue damage. The inner surface facing the inside of the blade head has a microstructured light guide layer containing several arranged micro-dots or microprism structures for scattering and homogenizing the incoming light, eliminating localized light spots and achieving uniform brightness distribution in the illuminated area. This component is fixed to a pre-set mounting position on the blade head via injection molding or inlay processes, and its shape conforms to the contour of the blade head's electrode end face.

[0009] Furthermore, the optical transmission element adopts a flexible optical fiber bundle, and its output end is coupled to the microstructure light guide layer on the inner surface of the composite light guide component in a docking or embedding manner.

[0010] Furthermore, the illumination source is a light-emitting diode (LED), which is installed in a shielded cavity near the end of the blade and connected to an external drive circuit via a high-temperature resistant insulated wire. This drive circuit can be independently dimmed and does not interfere with the high-frequency electrical operating mode of the electrode blade.

[0011] This composite light guide structure effectively improves illumination uniformity and visual comfort through a micro-diffusion mechanism, avoiding interference from direct glare on the surgeon's vision, while allowing the light to more fully cover the target area of ​​the surgical field. The integrated illumination light path and the electrode scalpel body form a compact functional unit, significantly enhancing the quality of vision and operational efficiency in deep laparoscopic surgery or delicate anatomical operations.

[0012] The beneficial effects listed above are not exhaustive of all advantages. Other potential beneficial effects and detailed technical implementation methods will be further disclosed in the embodiments or other descriptive sections of this application. Attached Figure Description

[0013] A better understanding of various aspects of this disclosure will be achieved by reading the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The positions, dimensions, and extents of the structures shown in the drawings, etc., do not always represent actual positions, dimensions, and extents. In the drawings: Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of one embodiment disclosed in this application.

[0014] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a composite light guide component in a preliminary embodiment disclosed in this application. Detailed Implementation

[0015] The present disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate several embodiments of the present disclosure. However, it should be understood that the present disclosure can be presented in many different ways and is not limited to the embodiments described below; in fact, the embodiments described below are intended to make the disclosure more complete and to fully illustrate the scope of protection of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. It should also be understood that the embodiments disclosed herein can be combined in various ways to provide further additional embodiments.

[0016] It should be understood that the same reference numerals denote the same elements in all the accompanying drawings. For clarity, the dimensions of certain features may be modified in the drawings.

[0017] It should be understood that the terminology used in this specification is for describing specific embodiments only and is not intended to limit this disclosure. All terms used in this specification (including technical and scientific terms) have the meanings commonly understood by those skilled in the art, unless otherwise defined. For the sake of brevity and / or clarity, techniques, methods, and apparatus known to those skilled in the art may not be discussed in detail; however, where appropriate, such techniques, methods, and apparatus should be considered part of this specification.

[0018] Unless otherwise specified, the singular forms “a,” “the,” and “the” used in this specification include the plural forms. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “containing” used in this specification indicate the presence of the claimed feature but do not exclude the presence of one or more other features. The term “and / or” used in this specification includes any and all combinations of one or more of the relevant listed items.

[0019] See attached document Figure 1 and 2 The specific implementation involves an electrode knife with integrated auxiliary lighting function. Its overall structure includes a blade body 1, a functional blade head 2 located at the distal end of the blade body 1, and an lighting component 3 completely built into the blade body 1. The blade body 1 is precision machined from 316L medical-grade stainless steel with an outer diameter of 8mm. It has two completely isolated channels inside: one is an electrical channel with a diameter of 1.5mm for passing high-frequency current, and the other is an optical channel with a diameter of 2.0mm for arranging light transmission elements 301. The lighting component 3 consists of a high-brightness lighting source 302, a low-loss light transmission element 301, and a composite light guide component 303. The components work together through mechanical interfaces and optical coupling to achieve direct lighting of the surgical area and simultaneous electrosurgical operation.

[0020] Furthermore, the composite light guide component 303 is manufactured through injection molding. Its substrate material is medical-grade polymethyl methacrylate conforming to ISO10993 standards, with a refractive index of 1.49 and a light transmittance of over 92%. The outer surface of the component is treated with diamond turning and polishing, and the surface roughness Ra value is controlled within 0.008μm to ensure that the coefficient of friction when in contact with tissue is less than 0.2. The inner surface is processed with a microstructure light guide layer 3031 using ultraviolet laser etching technology. This layer contains 5,000-8,000 precisely arranged microprism structures. The microprisms are distributed in a hexagonal array, with a height of 80μm, a base length of 100μm, and a vertex angle of 90° for each microprism. By optimizing the geometric parameters and spatial distribution of the microprisms, precise control of light is achieved, so that the uniformity of the output light reaches over 85%.

[0021] Based on this, the optical transmission element 301 adopts an optical fiber bundle composed of 1,200 low-hydroxyl silica optical fibers with a core diameter of 50μm, with an overall diameter of 1.8mm, a numerical aperture of 0.22, and a transmission efficiency of 95%@450nm. The output end uses a ceramic ferrule docking mechanism to achieve optical coupling with the microstructure layer on the inner surface of the composite light guide component 3031, with a coupling efficiency of over 90%. The input end is connected to the illumination source 302 through a dedicated channel inside the blade body 1. The optical fiber bundle is wrapped with a 0.2mm thick polytetrafluoroethylene insulation layer with a withstand voltage rating of 5kV, which can effectively isolate high-frequency current interference.

[0022] Subsequently, the lighting source 302 is a cool white light-emitting diode with a rated power of 3W, a color temperature of 5,500K, and a color rendering index of 90. The light-emitting diode is soldered onto a 2mm thick aluminum-based circuit board. This circuit board is in close contact with the copper electromagnetic shielding chamber near the end of the blade 1 through thermally conductive silicone grease. The chamber has dimensions of 10mm×5mm×3mm and is filled with thermally conductive silicone to ensure that the thermal resistance is less than 1.5℃ / W. The light-emitting diode is connected to an external drive module through a high-temperature resistant twisted pair cable. The drive module adopts an existing constant current drive scheme, providing a continuously adjustable drive current of 200-700mA, a dimming frequency of 1kHz, and a power factor of 0.95.

[0023] Understandably, the blade body 1 has a 0.15mm thick polyimide insulating layer inside, with a temperature resistance rating of 200℃ and a breakdown voltage of 8kV, which completely physically isolates the electrosurgical circuit from the optical path. At the same time, the grounding terminal of the blade head 2 is connected to an LC filter circuit composed of a 10μH inductor and a 100pF capacitor, which can effectively filter out electromagnetic interference in the frequency range of 100kHz-5MHz, ensuring that the lighting component 302 and the high-frequency electrosurgical equipment do not interfere with each other when working simultaneously.

[0024] In practical applications, this electrode knife is particularly suitable for deep laparoscopic surgery or delicate operations in narrow anatomical areas. For example, in transsphenoidal pituitary tumor resection, when the surgical depth reaches 8-10 cm, the surgeon can adjust the illumination brightness to 400-500 lumens by adjusting the external controller. The light is transmitted through optical fiber to the microstructure light guide layer 3031, where it undergoes diffuse reflection and refraction to form a uniform illumination area with a viewing angle of 130°, completely covering the surgical incision area. This effectively eliminates shadows caused by instruments and hands, making tiny blood vessels and nerve tissues with a diameter of less than 0.3 mm clearly visible, thereby reducing the risk of accidental injury and improving cutting precision. In a demonstration scenario, the surgeon can continuously perform operations such as tissue separation and electrocoagulation hemostasis without the need for additional assistants to adjust the lighting, reducing operational errors caused by insufficient lighting and improving the overall safety and efficiency of the surgery.

[0025] While exemplary embodiments of this disclosure have been described, those skilled in the art will understand that various changes and modifications can be made to the exemplary embodiments of this disclosure without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. Therefore, all changes and modifications are included within the scope of protection of this disclosure as defined by the claims. This disclosure is defined by the appended claims, and equivalents of those claims are also included.

Claims

1. An electrode knife with auxiliary illumination, characterized in that, It includes a blade, a blade tip located at the distal end of the blade, and an illumination component disposed inside the blade; the component is composed of at least one illumination source, a light transmission element, and a composite light guide component; One end of the light-conducting element is optically coupled to the illumination source, and the other end extends to the blade area and is optically connected to the composite light-guiding component; The composite light guide component adopts a layered structure design. The outer surface facing the tissue is a smooth light-transmitting layer, while the inner surface facing the inside of the blade head is provided with a microstructure light guide layer. This layer contains several arranged micro-dots or micro-prism structures, which are used to scatter and homogenize the incoming light, eliminate local light spots, and achieve uniform brightness distribution in the illumination area. This component is fixed to the preset mounting position of the blade head, and its shape is conformal to the contour of the electrode end face of the blade head.

2. The electrode knife with auxiliary illumination as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The optical transmission element adopts a flexible optical fiber bundle, and its output end is coupled to the microstructure light guide layer on the inner surface of the composite light guide component in a docking or embedding manner.

3. An electrode knife with auxiliary illumination as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The illumination source is a light-emitting diode, which is installed in the shielded cavity near the end of the blade and connected to the external drive circuit through a high-temperature resistant insulated wire.

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