Bioresorbable Tissue Anchor for Urethral Stabilization
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical treatments for stress urinary incontinence, such as polypropylene mesh vaginal slings, pose risks like infection and erosion, and alternative procedures like the Burch procedure and autologous sling are invasive and technically challenging, necessitating a more effective and safer method.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a housing with an actuator, an elongate shaft, a tissue anchor, and a tether, allowing for the deployment of a fascial anchor in the rectus abdominus or obturator internus muscle without incisions, using bioresorbable materials and adjustable vaginal anchors to create a hammock effect for urethral stabilization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If polypropylene mesh vaginal sling procedure is used, then efficacy and quality of life improvement are maximized, but risks of infection and erosion increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a temporary suture material that is absorbable and biodegradable, replacing permanent polypropylene mesh. The suture is designed to provide temporary support during the healing period and then naturally absorbs, eliminating long-term risks of infection and erosion associated with permanent mesh implants.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the material parameter from permanent synthetic mesh to temporary biodegradable suture. This parameter change transforms the long-term safety profile while maintaining the mechanical support function during the critical healing phase, thereby resolving the contradiction between efficacy and harmful factors.
2Ease of manufacture
If Burch procedure with sutures is used, then alternative to mesh is provided, but open incision surgery is associated with high morbidity and hospital stay
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the surgical approach by using separate, discrete suture anchors that can be placed through small punctures rather than requiring continuous incisions. This segmentation allows for minimally invasive placement while maintaining the stabilizing function, thereby reducing morbidity and hospital stay requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a temporary suture material as an intermediary between the vaginal wall and abdominal fascia. This intermediary element enables the connection to be made through small punctures rather than requiring open incisions, thereby reducing surgical trauma and hospital stay while achieving the same stabilizing effect.
3Ease of operation
If laparoscopic placement of sutures is used, then less invasive than open incision, but procedure is very technically difficult to perform
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs self-retaining suture anchors with barbed configurations that automatically grip the tissue upon insertion. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for complex laparoscopic manipulation and precise suture tying, thereby maintaining minimally invasive approach while significantly reducing technical difficulty.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex mechanical suture tying and knotting systems with a simpler barbed anchor mechanism that secures tissue through its own geometry. This substitution maintains the minimally invasive advantage while dramatically simplifying the procedural technique, resolving the contradiction between invasiveness and technical difficulty.
4Reliability
If needle procedures with permanent sutures are used, then urethral stabilization is achieved, but require incisions in vagina and abdomen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the permanent suture component and replaces it with a temporary absorbable suture. This extraction eliminates the need for permanent foreign body placement while maintaining the stabilization function during the healing period, thereby achieving urethral stabilization without requiring extensive incisions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the temporal parameter of the suture material from permanent to temporary. This parameter change allows the suture to provide stabilization during the critical healing phase and then naturally absorb, eliminating the need for permanent mesh and reducing the requirement for extensive incisions while maintaining reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosure provides improved methods and devices to create a hammock effect to stabilize the urethra without creating an incision in the abdomen or the vagina, and without using a surgical mesh. Such implementations can also leave no permanent material in the body. The simplicity afforded by such procedures and methods permits treatment of patients on an outpatient basis, and avoids risks and disadvantages associated with the installation of a permanent mesh.