85 results about "Tissue thickness" patented technology

The present disclosure relates to surgical fastener applying apparatus, and the application of variable compression to tissue. More specifically, the presently disclosed surgical fastener applying apparatus including a first jaw having proximal and distal ends and including an anvil member, the anvil member extending along a longitudinal axis and including a tissue contacting surface and a second jaw having proximal and distal ends movably coupled to the first jaw, the second jaw including a cartridge member and a channel. The surgical fastener applying apparatus further includes a pair of elastic members positioned between the cartridge member and the channel of the second jaw, the pair of elastic members configured and dimensioned to apply and maintain constant compressive forces to tissue regardless of tissue thickness.

A tissue ablation device has a handle and an ablation head coupled to the handle. The ablation head has a first jaw, a second jaw, and an ablative element coupled to at least one of the first and second jaws. A thickness measurement device may be coupled to the ablation device to indicate the distance separating the first and second jaws. Further, a force measurement device may be coupled to the ablation device to measure the force being applied by the first and second jaws to a piece of tissue. Further, a strain measurement device may be coupled to the ablation device to indicate the strain resulting in a piece of tissue disposed between the first and second jaws when a stress is applied to the tissue.

A system and method for creating lesions and assessing their completeness or transmurality. Assessment of transmurality of a lesion is accomplished by monitoring the impedance of the tissue to be ablated. Rather than attempting to detect a desired drop or a desired increase impedance, completeness of a lesion is detected in response to the measured impedance remaining at a stable level for a desired period of time, referred to as an impedance plateau. The mechanism for determining transmurality of lesions adjacent individual electrodes or pairs may be used to deactivate individual electrodes or electrode pairs, when the lesions in tissue adjacent these individual electrodes or electrode pairs are complete, to create an essentially uniform lesion along the line of electrodes or electrode pairs, regardless of differences in tissue thickness adjacent the individual electrodes or electrode pairs.

A system for creating lesions and assessing their completeness or transmurality. Assessment of transmurality of a lesion is accomplished by monitoring the impedance of the tissue to be ablated. Rather than attempting to detect a desired drop or a desired increase impedance, completeness of a lesion is detected in response to the measured impedance remaining at a stable level for a desired period of time, referred to as an impedance plateau. The mechanism for determining transmurality of lesions adjacent individual electrodes or pairs may be used to deactivate individual electrodes or electrode pairs, when the lesions in tissue adjacent these individual electrodes or electrode pairs are complete, to create an essentially uniform lesion along the line of electrodes or electrode pairs, regardless of differences in tissue thickness adjacent the individual electrodes or electrode pairs.

A surgical instrument is provided. The surgical instrument includes: a test end effector including a test jaw assembly having a pair of jaws configured to clamp about tissue and at least one sensor configured to measure at least one tissue property; and a handle assembly configured to couple to the treatment end effector. The handle assembly includes: a drive assembly; a motor operatively coupled to the drive assembly; and a controller operatively coupled to the motor, the controller configured to control operation of the motor to actuate the test end effector to measure the at least one tissue property and to determine, based on the at least one tissue property, at least one suitable treatment end effector.

A system for ablating tissue includes a catheter having an elongate body, with at least one ablation element (e.g., RF electrode) and at least one acoustic transducer located within the body's tip region. The transducer receives acoustic signals from proximate the tip region. The system also includes a monitoring unit coupled to the transducer to interpret the received acoustic signals as data regarding at least one therapeutic parameter (e.g., pre-pop detection, lesion making progress, tissue interface detection, tissue contact force, tissue contact establishment, bubble spatial distribution, bubble depth, bubble size, bubble size distribution, tissue interface distance, tissue interface position, tissue attenuation, tissue thickness, lesion spectral fingerprint). The monitoring unit is operable to provide feedback to a practitioner, such as graphical, audible, and/or haptic output of sensed data, and may also be operable to control operation of the at least one ablation element in response thereto.

A catheter tip for delivering laser light energy to create lesions extending to a depth of several millimeters in tissue includes an elongated, flexible housing. A reflector is oriented longitudinally in a channel the housing. A side emitting optical fiber diffuser, extending the length of the reflector, is held at a fixed separation from the reflector. The reflector and the side emitting diffuser are configured and spaced to provide a convergent beam directed through the tissue under treatment. Reflector curvature may be circular or elliptical in cross section, or other selected shape. The diffuser and reflector relative positioning being selected to place the beam focal point (or image) at a predetermined lateral distance from the reflector preferably not closer than the far wall of the tissue under treatment. Temperature probes are provided to monitor the temperature gradient through the tissue thickness. Optionally cooling and/or irrigation fluid are provided. Optionally, the fiber terminates at a retro-reflector.

A surgical fastening apparatus including a fastener receiving frame including a plurality of spaced apart openings formed therein and a fastener supporting member containing a plurality of surgical fasteners extending therefrom. The surgical fasteners are engagable with the plurality of openings to mate with the fastener receiving frame to fasten tissue therebetween. The fasteners are engageable with the openings in a plurality of positions dependent on a tissue thickness between the fastener receiving frame and the fastener supporting member.

A system and method for opto-acoustic tissue and lesion assessment in real time on one or more of the following tissue characteristics: tissue thickness, lesion progression, lesion width, steam pop, and char formation, system includes an ablation element, laser delivery means, and an acoustic sensor. The invention involves irradiating tissue undergoing ablation treatment to create acoustic waves that have a temporal profile which can be recorded and analyzed by acoustic sampling hardware for reconstructing a cross-sectional aspect of the irradiated tissue. The ablation element (e.g., RF ablation), laser delivery means and acoustic sensor are configured to interact with a tissue surface from a common orientation; that is, these components are each generally facing the tissue surface such that the direction of irradiation and the direction of acoustic detection are generally opposite to each other, where the stress waves induced by the laser-induced heating of the tissue below the surface are reflected back to the tissue surface.

The invention discloses an audio processing method for a bone conduction headset, the bone conduction headset and an audio playback device based on the bone conduction headset. The bone conduction headset comprises a human bone and tissue model modeling module, a digital pre-corrector, a delay estimation unit, a digital-to-analog converter, an analog-digital converter, a first low-pass filter, a second low-pass filter, an audio amplifier, an audio driving amplifier, at least one bone conduction microphone, and at least one bone conduction vibrator. In the method, human bone and tissue attenuation effect information of different users is detected in real time; a compensating transfer function is generated based on the attenuation effect information; and an input audio signal is subjected to digital pre-correction via the compensating transfer function, and then the processed input audio signal is transmitted in human bones and tissues. Through adoption of the method, a problem that experience of the bone conduction headset is different caused by different tissue thickness of the different users is solved.

A device is described that can be easily used to accurately measure and monitor tissue thickness using ultrasound. The device comprises a remote control and data processing unit, a handheld ultrasound transducer, a display monitor and means for effectively coupling ultrasound to tissue.

Certain embodiments provide a photo-realistic rendering apparatus and method. An illumination model is used that includes placing a synthetic or virtual light source adjacent a region of tissue of interest in order to visualize the thickness of the tissue by modeling how light from the virtual light source interacts with the tissue of interest, through effects including absorption and scattering, as light emitted from the light source travels through the tissue of interest to a view point of view plane. It is simulated how some light is absorbed making tissue regions that are thicker darker (since more of the light is absorbed and the intensity reduces) and more red (since tissue tends to absorb blue and green wavelengths more strongly than red wavelengths and this chromatic effect is incorporated in the illumination model). A 2D image can thus be provided in which the color and intensity of light propagating through the tissue provides visual feedback on the tissue thickness.

An ablation catheter with acoustic monitoring comprises an elongated catheter body; a distal member disposed adjacent a distal end and including an ablation element to ablate a biological member at a target region outside the catheter body; and one or more acoustic transducers each configured to direct an acoustic beam toward a respective target ablation region and receive reflection echoes therefrom. The distal member includes a transducer housing in which the acoustic transducers are disposed, the transducer housing including at least one transducer window which is the only portion in the distal member through which the acoustic beam passes, at least the at least one transducer window portion of the distal member being made of a material comprising at least 50% carbon by volume, the transducer window material having an acoustic impedance between that of the acoustic transducers and that of the biological member.

Spatially localized dispersion measurement and glucose measurement by means of optical short-coherence interference refractometry. This application is directed to methods and arrangements for the measurement of the dispersion and of the glucose content in transparent and partially transparent tissues and body fluids. Methods of short-coherence interferometry and spectral interferometry are modified for the measurement of tissue thickness and for the measurement of local dispersion. In the technique based on short-coherence interferometry, partial interferograms from the short-coherence interferogram G(τ) are used for the dispersion measurement. In the technique based on spectral interferometry, partial areas from the ω-spectrum of the spectral interferogram are used for the dispersion measurement. FIG. 6 shows an arrangement based on spectral interferometry. A temporally short-coherence light source illuminates the modified Michelson interferometer. The beam splitter splits the illuminating beam into a measurement beam and a reference beam. The light waves and reflected from the interferometer impinges on the spectrometer at the interferometer output. The registered spectral interferogram i(ω) forms the basis for the calculation of the dispersion of different orders. The viewing direction of the eye of the subject is fixated by means of a target beam.