Bendable Endoscope Shaft With Disposable Tip-Contact Section
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing endoscopes often require complex sterilization processes due to their reusable components, which can lead to imperfect sterilization and potential patient safety risks, especially when components come into contact with bodily fluids.
Innovation Solution
A design featuring a partially reusable and partially disposable endoscope with a detachable shaft and handle components, allowing for easy sterilization of reusable parts and disposal of components that contact bodily fluids, while maintaining mechanical and electrical connectivity through a separable joint.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the endoscope is designed as fully reusable with sterilizable components, then cost is reduced, but sterilization reliability deteriorates and patient safety risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The endoscope is divided into two distinct segments: a reusable handle portion and a disposable insertion shaft. The handle contains expensive electronics and can be sterilized and reused, while the insertion shaft that contacts bodily fluids is disposable. This segmentation allows the reusable portion to be sterilized reliably while the disposable portion eliminates sterilization concerns entirely.
Solution Approach 2:
The insertion shaft is designed as a disposable component that is discarded after a single use. This eliminates the need to sterilize components that contact bodily fluids, ensuring patient safety while reducing the complexity of sterilization processes for the overall device.
2Reliability
If the endoscope is designed as fully disposable, then patient safety is improved, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The endoscope is segmented into a reusable handle and a disposable shaft. Only the insertion shaft that contacts bodily fluids is disposable, while the handle with expensive electronics is reused after sterilization. This reduces material consumption compared to fully disposable designs while maintaining patient safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The expensive electronic components (illumination source, image processor) are extracted from the insertion shaft and placed in the reusable handle. This allows the critical safety-related components to be disposable while the expensive components are reused, reducing overall material consumption.
3Reliability
If a separable joint is introduced to enable disposal of the shaft, then sterilization effectiveness is improved, but mechanical strength at the connection point deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The insertion shaft with the separable joint is designed as a disposable component. Even though the joint introduces a potential weak point, the entire shaft is discarded after one use, eliminating the risk of joint failure compromising patient safety. The mechanical strength requirement is maintained for the duration of single use.
4Reliability
If complex sterilization processes are applied to reusable components, then contamination risk is reduced, but time and resource consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The insertion shaft is made disposable to eliminate the need for complex sterilization processes. Only the handle requires sterilization, which can be performed using standard medical sterilization protocols. This significantly reduces sterilization time and resource consumption compared to sterilizing the entire endoscope.
Data Source
AI summary
An endoscope with a handle and an insertion shaft. The insertion shaft has solid state illumination and imaging circuitry at or near a tip designed to provide illumination and imaging of a body cavity for a surgeon during surgery. At least a portion of the insertion shaft is flexible or articulated. Controls on the handle permit control of flex or articulation of the insertion shaft to permit direction of illumination and field of view of the imaging circuitry. Control force transfer elements permit a surgeon to direct a direction of the imaging circuitry by transfer of mechanical force directed by a surgeon to the bendable distal portion to cause the bendable portion to bend under the surgeon's control.