Arthroscopic Shaft Rotatable Sleeve for Contamination Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current arthroscopic procedures require frequent tool exchanges, leading to inefficiency and potential contamination, as surgeons must reposition mechanical cutting tools with integrated electrosurgical electrodes, which is impractical due to the need to rotate or detach components during procedures.
Innovation Solution
An arthroscopic system with a motor-driven hand piece and an elongate shaft assembly featuring a rotatable outer sleeve with a distal cutting window and electrode, allowing for easy reorientation without rotating the hand piece, enabling simultaneous access to controls and reducing the risk of contamination.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If mechanical cutting tools with integrated electrosurgical electrodes are used, then tool exchange frequency is reduced and contamination risk is decreased, but device complexity increases and ease of operation deteriorates due to the need to rotate or detach components
Solution Approach 1:
The outer sleeve is made rotatable relative to the hand piece, transforming a static structure into a dynamic one. This allows the cutting window and electrode to be repositioned by simply rotating the outer sleeve, eliminating the need to detach or rotate the entire shaft assembly. The dynamic design maintains integration benefits while improving operational ease.
Solution Approach 2:
The device is segmented into rotatable components: the outer sleeve can rotate independently relative to the hand piece, and the inner sleeve can rotate independently relative to the outer sleeve. This segmentation allows selective repositioning of cutting and electrosurgical elements without moving the entire device, reducing complexity of repositioning while maintaining integration.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the physician rotates the device in hand to switch between cutting and coagulation, then functional versatility is maintained, but ease of operation deteriorates due to loss of control accessibility
Solution Approach 1:
The outer sleeve's rotatability allows the physician to dynamically reposition the cutting window and electrode without rotating the hand piece. This maintains functional versatility (ability to switch between cutting and coagulation) while preserving control accessibility, as the hand piece remains stationary with controls always accessible.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of rotating the entire device in three dimensions (which moves controls out of reach), the invention allows rotation of the outer sleeve in a single dimension around the longitudinal axis. This dimensional change enables functional switching while keeping the hand piece and its controls in the same position.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the shaft is detached, rotated, and reattached to switch functions, then functional versatility is maintained, but productivity deteriorates due to time loss and device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The rotatable outer sleeve provides a dynamic mechanism for function switching that eliminates the need for detachment and reattachment. This maintains full functional versatility (cutting, coagulation, and contouring capabilities) while dramatically improving productivity by reducing the time and steps required to switch between functions.
Solution Approach 2:
The device is pre-configured with the outer sleeve capable of rotation, so the functional switching capability is built-in from the beginning. This preliminary design action eliminates the need for complex detachment and reattachment procedures during the procedure, maintaining versatility while improving efficiency.
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
This design enhances procedural efficiency by allowing seamless switching between cutting and coagulation modes without reorienting the hand piece, maintaining control accessibility and reducing the risk of contamination through simplified manipulation of the cutting and electrosurgical elements.
Implementation Method 1
a cutting window on one side and a diametrically opposed electrode on the other side
Implementation Method 2
electrosurgical ablation devices for ablating, coagulating or contouring soft tissue
Data Source
AI summary
An arthroscopic system includes a hand piece with a motor drive. an elongate shaft assembly is detachably secured to a distal end of the hand piece, and the elongate shaft assembly includes an outer sleeve and an inner sleeve rotatably mounted in the outer sleeve. The inner sleeve couples to the motor drive when the elongate shaft assembly is attached to the hand piece, and an inner distal cutting window on the inner sleeve moves in and out of alignment with an outer distal cutting window on the outer sleeve as the motor drive rotates the inner sleeve. A distal electrode is disposed on an outer surface of the outer sleeve at a location opposite to that of the outer distal cutting window, and the outer sleeve member is rotatable relative to the hand piece when the hub is secured to the hand piece such that a user can hold the hand piece in one hand and rotate the outer sleeve to selectively place the outer distal cutting window or the distal electrode in an upward orientation relative to the user while continuing to hold the hand piece in the one hand.