Adjustable Surgical Drape with Removable Panels
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Solution Overview
Problem
Surgical drapes often require multiple sizes and shapes to accommodate different surgical procedures and patient sizes, leading to the need for extensive inventory and lack of adjustability without cutting or tearing the drape material.
Innovation Solution
An adjustable surgical drape featuring a large sheet with removable panels and non-tack adhesive elements, allowing for customizable fenestration sizes and shapes without adhering to unwanted surfaces, using complementary tapered projections and grooves for secure attachment and removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple drapes with different fenestration sizes are stocked to accommodate different procedures and patient sizes, then adaptability is improved, but device complexity and inventory requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The drape is divided into a base sheet and multiple removable panels with different fenestration sizes. Each panel can be independently attached or removed based on the specific surgical procedure and patient size requirements, allowing a single base drape to serve multiple purposes that previously required multiple different drapes.
Solution Approach 2:
The drape configuration is made dynamic through the ability to add or remove panels during the surgical process. The fenestration size can be adjusted by removing panels, transforming the drape from a static single-size configuration to a dynamic multi-size configuration, eliminating the need to stock multiple fixed-size drapes.
2Ease of operation
If removable panels are attached using adhesive materials, then ease of operation is improved, but harmful factors increase due to potential adhesion to unwanted surfaces
Solution Approach 1:
The adhesive properties are localized only to the surfaces of the removable panels that need to attach to the base sheet. The adhesive materials are applied selectively to specific areas rather than covering the entire panel surfaces, ensuring attachment where needed while preventing unwanted adhesion to surgical instruments, patient skin, or other surfaces during the surgical procedure.
Solution Approach 2:
The adhesive materials act as an intermediary mechanism that enables controlled attachment between panels and the base sheet. These adhesives are designed to bond only to complementary surfaces on the base sheet, creating a selective bonding interface that prevents the panels from adhering to unwanted surfaces while still providing secure attachment during surgery.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables a single drape to be used for various procedures and patient sizes, reducing inventory needs and maintaining sterility by allowing easy adjustment of fenestration size and shape without compromising the drape's integrity or adhering to other materials.
Implementation Method 1
The removable panel has one or more areas of a second adhering material complementary to the first adhering material in order to removably affix the panel to the sheet. In some forms the adhering materials comprise complementary projections or grooves with a height of 1 mm or less, preferably 500 μm or less
Data Source
AI summary
Adjustable surgical drapes are provided for easily modifying the size of fenestrations in the drape to accommodate patients of different sizes.