Collapsible Surgical Reamer for Minimally Invasive Bone Socket Cutting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical reamers for cutting bone sockets, particularly in the acetabulum, face challenges in minimizing the surgical incision size and ensuring precise cutting while efficiently collecting debris, with existing designs lacking radial expansion or collapsing capabilities for optimal insertion and reaming profiles.
Innovation Solution
A surgical reamer with a collapsible and expandable design featuring a hollow, concave domed shape and pivotally connected cutting members, actuated by a hub that radially collapses for insertion and expands for reaming, allowing for a smaller incision and efficient debris collection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If the reamer uses a conventional circular static insertion profile area, then the dynamic cutting profile area is larger providing better cutting coverage, but the surgical incision size must be larger
Solution Approach 1:
The reamer employs radially collapsible cutting members that can transition between an expanded cutting configuration and a collapsed insertion configuration. The cutting members are held in the collapsed state during insertion through the incision and are then expanded to provide a larger cutting profile area during the reaming operation, resolving the contradiction between incision size and cutting coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The cutting members are designed to nest within each other when in the collapsed state, allowing the reamer to pass through a smaller incision. Upon expansion, the nested cutting members deploy outward to provide the necessary cutting surface area, effectively nesting the larger cutting profile within a smaller insertion profile.
2Area of moving object
If the reamer uses a smaller static insertion profile area to minimize incision size, then the surgical incision can be smaller, but the reamer may not bottom-out accurately in the bone socket
Solution Approach 1:
The reamer transitions from a collapsed insertion state to an expanded cutting state once positioned in the bone socket. The expansion of the cutting members ensures full contact with the bone surface, enabling accurate bottoming-out and precise cutting despite the smaller initial insertion profile.
Solution Approach 2:
The reamer is inserted in a collapsed state to minimize incision size, then expanded in place before the cutting operation begins. This preliminary expansion ensures the cutting members are properly positioned and engaged with the bone surface before the reaming process starts, maintaining cut accuracy.
3Area of moving object
If the reamer uses a collapsible design with multiple moving parts, then the incision size can be minimized, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The reamer is divided into modular components including the domed support portion, cutting members, spokes, and hub. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function while working together to achieve the collapsible/expandable capability, managing overall device complexity through modular design.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple functions are combined into single components to reduce overall complexity. The spokes serve both as structural support elements and as the actuation mechanism for expanding the cutting members. The hub integrates the control mechanism for both insertion and removal phase actuation, consolidating control functions.
4Area of moving object
If the reamer uses a collapsed insertion profile, then the incision size is minimized, but debris collection capability may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The reamer maintains a collapsed configuration during insertion to minimize incision size, then expands to a larger cutting configuration that provides adequate debris collection capacity. The internal cavity of the domed support portion can accommodate debris generated during the reaming operation when the cutting members are in the expanded state.
Data Source
AI summary
A preferred acetabular reamer is disclosed for cutting a bone socket, defining an apex and rotatable about a drive axis. The reamer has a domed support portion adjacent the apex and a plurality of cutting members, which may be of the cheese grater or bladed type, each pivotally mounted on the support portion. A hub structure including a sleeve portion is movable along the axis toward and away from the apex. A plurality of spokes operatively connects the cutting members and the hub, respectively. Actuation of the hub, in turn, radially collapses the spokes causing the cutting members to assume an insertion profile during passage of the reamer through a surgical incision, and then radially expands the spokes causing the cutting members to assume a larger, cutting profile while reaming the bone socket. A surgical kit and method employing the inventive reamer are also disclosed.