Arcuate Needle Fastening Device for Mesh Attachment

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional laparoscopic fastening devices face challenges in positioning and securing prosthetic mesh due to their rigid nature and limited access, often causing irritation, pain, and complications with metal tacks, while absorbable tacks provide inadequate holding strength.

Innovation Solution

A medical fastening device featuring arcuate needles and a drive mechanism that advances fasteners in a helical configuration, allowing for secure tissue and prosthetic mesh attachment with reduced irritation and improved holding strength.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Strength

If metal tacks are used for fastening prosthetic mesh, then holding strength is improved, but patient irritation and pain increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveholding strengthVSAvoidpatient irritation and pain

Core Design Contradiction:

StrengthVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent employs absorbable tacks that are designed to be temporarily present in the body and then absorbed/eliminated. These tacks provide necessary holding strength during the healing period and then dissolve, eliminating long-term irritation and pain associated with permanent metal tacks. The temporary nature of these fasteners resolves the contradiction between needing strong fixation and avoiding patient discomfort.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #27Cheap short-living objects (Disposable)

2Object-affected harmful factors

If absorbable tacks are used for fastening prosthetic mesh, then patient irritation is reduced, but holding strength decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepatient irritationVSAvoidholding strength

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-affected harmful factorsVSStrength

Solution Approach 1:

The patent utilizes absorbable tacks made from materials with specific degradation characteristics that maintain structural integrity and holding strength during the critical early healing period, then gradually degrade as tissue heals. By carefully selecting and engineering the material parameters (degradation rate, strength profile over time), the tacks provide adequate holding strength when needed while minimizing patient irritation through eventual absorption.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

3Ease of operation

If conventional laparoscopic tackers are used, then minimally invasive procedure is achieved, but positioning accuracy deteriorates due to rigid structure

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveminimally invasive accessVSAvoidpositioning accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent employs a flexible elongate member that can dynamically adapt its shape and position to reach difficult-to-access hernia defects. The flexible catheter-like structure allows the surgeon to navigate through the patient's anatomy and position the fastening device accurately at the target site, overcoming the positioning limitations of rigid conventional tackers while maintaining minimally invasive access.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The flexible elongate member can curve and bend to follow the anatomical pathways and reach hernia defects that are not directly accessible through straight-line approaches. This curvature capability allows accurate positioning of the fastening device at various angles and locations within the abdominal cavity, improving positioning accuracy while maintaining the benefits of minimally invasive access.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #14Spheroidality (Curvature)

4Strength

If suturing is used for fastening tissue, then holding strength is improved, but procedure complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetissue holding strengthVSAvoidprocedure complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

StrengthVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces the complex manual suturing process with an automated fastening device that delivers pre-formed fasteners through a controlled mechanism. The device uses a streamlined fastening element with a deployment mechanism that secures tissue without requiring the surgeon to perform complex knot-tying sutures. This substitution maintains adequate holding strength while dramatically reducing procedural complexity and making the process more suitable for minimally invasive approaches.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Data Source

PatentUS10231728B2Medical fastening device

Publication Date: 2019.03.19 SURGIMATIX INC

AI summary

A tissue fastening device is provided. The tissue fastening device may include an elongate member having fastener guides extending between a working end and a control end and a firing aperture disposed on the working end, an arcuate needle disposed within the firing aperture of the working end and rotatable between a retracted position and an extended position, the arcuate needle including an antegrade recess configured to engagably receive an end of a fastener during advancement of the arcuate needle, and a drive mechanism operatively coupled to the arcuate needle and configured to, upon actuation, advance the arcuate needle in a forward rotation to engage the end of the fastener to be installed and push the end of the fastener through one of a tissue and a prosthetic material into a helical configuration.