Bioabsorbable Surgical Clips for Watertight Dural Tear Closure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Minimally invasive surgical procedures face challenges in closing dural tears due to the small size of incisions, making it difficult to achieve tight closure with conventional sutures, and metal staples or clips can be too thin to cover significant tissue breaks, leaving permanent foreign bodies that interfere with postoperative imaging.
Innovation Solution
The use of bioabsorbable surgical clips and applicators that can be easily deployed to grasp and close dural tears without penetrating the tissue, providing a rapid and watertight closure, and are designed to dissolve over time, eliminating the need for removal and minimizing imaging artifacts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional suture techniques are used to close dural tears, then closure can be achieved, but the procedure becomes extremely difficult and time-consuming due to the small size of minimally invasive incisions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the manual suture and knot-tying mechanical system with a spring-loaded clip applicator that mechanically deploys pre-formed clips. The spring mechanism automatically opens the clip jaws to grasp dural edges and then releases them to close, eliminating the need for manual threading and knotting through small incisions.
Solution Approach 2:
The clip applicator serves as an intermediary device that delivers the closure mechanism (clips) through the small surgical incision. The applicator's elongated shaft with distal delivery mechanism allows precise placement of clips at the dural tear site without requiring the surgeon to manually manipulate suture material through the constrained space.
2Productivity
If metal staples or clips are used to close dural tears, then rapid closure can be achieved, but permanent foreign bodies are left in the tissue that interfere with postoperative imaging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter of the closure device from permanent metal to bioabsorbable polymer. This parameter change allows the clip to maintain its structural function for closure while gradually degrading over time, transforming from a permanent foreign body to a temporary support structure that disappears after serving its purpose.
Solution Approach 2:
The bioabsorbable clip is designed to be temporarily retained in the tissue to provide closure strength, then gradually degraded and absorbed by the body over weeks to months. The clip serves its closing function and then is discarded by the body's natural metabolic processes, eliminating the need for removal surgery and avoiding permanent imaging artifacts.
3Reliability
If metal staples are used to close dural tears, then closure can be achieved, but the staples are too thin to cover and hold significant lengths along the tissue break
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from one-dimensional linear staples to two-dimensional surface-area clips. The clip structure with its jaws, body, and straddle configuration provides a broader contact area that can span and secure larger dural defects. The clip's geometry allows it to engage tissue edges across a wider area compared to the linear contact of staples.
4Duration of action of stationary object
If clips or staples are left in the tissue for permanent closure, then closure durability is improved, but postoperative imaging is compromised by artifacts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the temporal parameter of the closure device from permanent to temporary. The bioabsorbable material properties are selected to provide adequate mechanical strength for the initial healing period, then gradually degrade as the tissue heals, ultimately being completely absorbed. This time-dependent parameter change resolves the conflict between needing durable closure and avoiding permanent imaging interference.
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 solution enables quick, easy, and efficient closure of dural tears, reducing the risk of cerebrospinal fluid leakage, adhesions, and imaging artifacts, while ensuring no permanent foreign bodies are left in the tissue.
Implementation Method 1
designed to dissolve over time, eliminating the need for removal
Data Source
AI summary
Surgical clips and surgical applicators used in performing rapid tissue closure in either minimally invasive surgeries or traditional open procedures are provided. In one example approach, a surgical clip comprises opposing sides extending from a top portion and terminating at tips positioned below the top portion. The resting position of the clip is its closed position. Edges of the top portion and the opposing sides form opposing faces perpendicular to the opposing sides. The opposing faces are angled inwardly towards each other at a region of the faces adjacent to the top portion. Grooves are formed in each of the opposing sides. The grooves are configured to engage inwardly turned tracks of a clip applicator such that, when a force is applied to the clip, the opposing sides bend outwardly away from each other to place the clip in an intermediate open position.