Bioabsorbable Staple Cartridge With Staged Corrosion Timing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing surgical staples made of bioabsorbable materials face challenges in maintaining structural integrity and biocorrosion timeframe while ensuring tissue healing, considering factors like stiffness, strength, ductility, toxicity, and compatibility with electrosurgical instruments.
Innovation Solution
Development of bioabsorbable staples with various designs, coatings, and manufacturing processes to enhance structural integrity and controlled biocorrosion, including asymmetrical shapes, coatings, and manufacturing methods to ensure effective tissue healing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of moving object
If bioabsorbable materials are used for surgical staples, then the staples can ultimately dissolve and release the tissue after healing, but the staples may not maintain sufficient structural integrity for the required biocorrosion timeframe
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes bioabsorbable metal alloys with specific compositional ratios (e.g., Mg-Ca-Sr, Mg-Ca-Zn) that combine multiple elements to achieve optimal balance between structural strength and controlled biocorrosion rate. The composite material structure allows the staple to maintain integrity during healing while gradually degrading over the required timeframe.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent modifies material parameters including alloy composition, microstructure, and surface properties to control the biocorrosion rate. By adjusting elemental ratios and heat treatment parameters, the staple's structural integrity is optimized to match the tissue healing timeline while ensuring eventual dissolution.
2Reliability
If bioabsorbable materials are used for surgical staples, then the staples can dissolve and release tissue, but safety concerns such as toxicity and compatibility with electrosurgical instruments arise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent carefully controls the chemical composition parameters of the bioabsorbable alloy, limiting certain elements and optimizing others to ensure biocompatibility and non-toxicity. The material parameters are selected to prevent adverse reactions with electrosurgical instruments while maintaining effective tissue sealing functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent addresses potential harmful interactions by selecting materials that convert potentially toxic degradation products into safe substances. The alloy composition is designed so that biocorrosion products are biocompatible and safely metabolized by the body, turning the potential harm of degradation into a beneficial dissolution process.
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
The bioabsorbable staples maintain structural integrity for the required healing period, ensuring effective tissue healing and controlled dissolution, while being compatible with electrosurgical instruments.
Implementation Method 1
the staples must maintain their structural integrity for an amount of time, i.e., the biocorrosion timeframe, to allow for sufficient healing of the tissue
Data Source
AI summary
A method of preparing a staple cartridge includes forming first staples with a first alloy, and forming second staples with a second alloy that is different than the first alloy. The method includes positioning the first staples into staple cavities of a first row of staple cavities of the staple cartridge, the first row of staple cavities being a first distance from an elongate slot of the staple cartridge, and positioning the second staples into staple cavities of a second row of staple cavities, the second row of staple cavities being a second distance from the elongate slot of the staple cartridge. The second distance is greater than the first distance. The first staples are configured to degrade at a first rate in a tissue environment, and the second staples are configured to degrade at a second rate that is different than the first rate.