Adjustable Length Hollow Tubes for Percutaneous Spinal Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Minimally invasive surgical procedures face challenges in accurately accessing deep body locations and requiring open surgery for connecting elements like rods and plates between spinal locations, leading to tissue trauma, prolonged recovery, and increased hospitalization costs.
Innovation Solution
A device with adjustable length hollow tubes for percutaneous access, allowing for variable length channels and the transfer of instruments and connecting devices between body locations, featuring mechanisms for length adjustment and engagement/disengagement of fixation devices, enabling minimally invasive placement of connecting elements without open surgery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional surgical procedures are used to access deep body locations, then direct visualization and access are achieved, but extensive tissue trauma, prolonged recovery time, and high hospitalization costs result
Solution Approach 1:
The surgical approach is segmented into multiple percutaneous access points rather than a single large incision. Multiple hollow tubes are inserted through separate small incisions to reach different deep body locations, allowing targeted access while preserving surrounding tissue integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
Hollow tubes serve as intermediary devices that bridge the surface incisions and deep target locations. These tubes provide a protected pathway for instrument transfer between access points without requiring direct exposure of the surgical field, thereby minimizing tissue trauma.
2Strength
If open surgery is performed to place connecting elements between spinal locations, then stable fixation is achieved, but extensive muscle stripping and tissue retraction are required
Solution Approach 1:
Connecting elements are nested within the hollow tubes during insertion. The tubes provide a protective sheath that guides the connecting elements to their final positions between spinal locations, allowing complex fixation structures to be placed through simple percutaneous access points.
Solution Approach 2:
The traditional mechanical system of wide incisions, muscle stripping, and direct visualization is replaced with a percutaneous system using hollow tubes, guide wires, and fluoroscopic imaging. This substitution maintains fixation stability while dramatically reducing soft tissue disruption.
3Adaptability or versatility
If fixed length hollow tubes are used for percutaneous access, then simple device structure is maintained, but inability to reach variable depth locations limits versatility
Solution Approach 1:
The hollow tubes are designed with adjustable length capability, transforming from static fixed-length structures to dynamic variable-length devices. This allows the same tube to adapt to different patient anatomies and reach target locations at varying depths while maintaining a relatively simple overall device structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The length parameter of the hollow tubes can be changed to match the specific anatomical requirements of each patient and surgical site. This parameter adjustment capability provides versatility for reaching variable depth locations without requiring a complete suite of different fixed-length tubes.
Data Source
AI summary
A device for use as a portal in percutaneous minimally invasive surgery performed within a patient's body cavity includes a first elongated hollow tube having a length adjusted with a self-contained mechanism. The first elongated tube includes an inner hollow tube and an outer hollow tube and the inner tube is adapted to slide within the outer tube thereby providing the self-contained length adjusting mechanism. This length-adjustment feature is advantageous for percutaneous access surgery in any body cavity. Two or more elongated tubes with adjustable lengths can be placed into two or more adjacent body cavities, respectively. Paths are opened within the tissue areas between the two or more body cavities, and are used to transfer devices and tools between the adjacent body cavities. This system of two or more elongated tubes with adjustable lengths is particularly advantageous in percutaneous minimally invasive spinal surgeries, and provides the benefits of minimizing long incisions, recovery time and post-operative complications.