Diagnostic Imaging Forceps for Real-Time Tissue Pathology Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical methods for detecting cancer during or after surgery are time-consuming, expensive, and often require additional procedures due to the inability to examine tissues in real-time for residual cancer, leading to prolonged surgeries and potential disfigurement.
Innovation Solution
Development of diagnostic imaging forceps equipped with sensors that transmit pathology-sensitive signals, allowing for real-time tissue analysis during surgery using modalities like high-frequency ultrasound, conductance, and light, enabling immediate identification of malignant tissue without the need for additional instruments or personnel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional pathology analysis is performed on resected tissue specimens, then cancer detection is achieved, but surgery time is prolonged and additional surgeries are required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical/ex vivo pathology analysis system with an in vivo optical sensing system. Sensors mounted on surgical instruments detect tissue properties directly during surgery using light-based techniques, eliminating the need to wait for post-surgical laboratory analysis and enabling real-time decision making.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces optical sensors as an intermediary between the surgeon and the tissue. These sensors act as mediators that translate tissue properties into detectable optical signals, providing the surgeon with real-time information about tissue margins without requiring tissue removal for analysis.
2Reliability
If successive tissue layers are removed for Mohs surgery with pathology analysis between excisions, then complete cancer removal is ensured, but procedure time extends to four hours or more
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary detection of cancer margins during the initial excision process itself, rather than requiring successive layers to be removed and analyzed. The optical sensors identify tissue boundaries in real-time, allowing the surgeon to achieve complete cancer removal in a single or fewer stages.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables continuous real-time monitoring of tissue margins during surgery, rather than interrupting the procedure for repeated pathology analysis. The optical sensing system provides uninterrupted feedback, maintaining the surgical flow and eliminating repeated excision-analyzes cycles.
3Reliability
If extensive tissue is removed to ensure complete cancer removal, then residual cancer is eliminated, but unaffected tissue and patient appearance are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies optical sensing locally at the tissue margin interface, providing spatially-resolved information about cancer presence. This localized detection enables the surgeon to precisely distinguish between cancerous and unaffected tissue at each location, removing only what is necessary and preserving healthy tissue.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical approach of removing large tissue margins with uncertainty with a precision optical detection system. This substitution enables margin-specific resection guided by real-time optical feedback, minimizing the removal of unaffected tissue while ensuring complete cancer elimination.
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
Enables precise and conservative surgery by providing immediate diagnostic capabilities, reducing re-excision rates, shortening surgery duration, and preserving unaffected tissue, while allowing for multi-category pathology detection beyond binary differentiation.
Implementation Method 1
using modalities like high-frequency ultrasound
Implementation Method 2
using modalities like high-frequency ultrasound, conductance, and light
Data Source
AI summary
Provided herein are an apparatus, system, and method for a medical diagnostic and imaging forceps for determining the pathology of tissue in vivo during surgery, endoscopy, laparoscopy, or other medical procedure, the forceps comprising a platform for analyzing tissue pathology inside the body by way of sensors including without limitation conductivity, optical, tracking, and x-ray sensors.