Discrete Flexion Head for Single Port Surgical Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current laparoscopic procedures face limitations with mini-laparoscopy due to fragile instruments and limited accessibility, particularly in patients with unfavorable anatomy, leading to cosmetic and wound complications, and the desire for a single-incision approach that maintains cosmesis and minimizes trauma.
Innovation Solution
A surgical access device featuring a flexible member and discrete housing portions that allow independent movement, providing a fluid-tight seal and adjustable instrument positioning, enabling access through a single incision or port while maintaining insufflation and preventing instrument disturbance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If mini-laparoscopy is used with smaller diameter instruments, then cosmetic outcome is improved and abdominal wall trauma is reduced, but instrument durability decreases and performance limitations increase
Solution Approach 1:
The housing is divided into multiple discrete housing portions (first, second, third housing portions) that can move independently relative to one another. This segmentation allows each housing portion to be optimized for specific functions while maintaining overall device integrity, enabling the use of smaller incisions without compromising instrument durability or performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The housing portions are made movable relative to one another through flexible members, allowing dynamic adjustment of instrument positions and angles during the surgical procedure. This dynamic capability enables surgeons to optimize instrument placement for each patient's anatomy while maintaining smaller incision sizes, thereby improving both cosmesis and instrument reliability.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a single incision approach is used, then cosmetic outcome is improved and number of incisions is reduced, but accessibility to operative field is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The device introduces angular displacement as an additional dimension of freedom by allowing housing portions to move relative to one another. This enables instruments to access the operative field from multiple angles through a single incision, overcoming the limitation of single-port access while maintaining superior cosmetic outcomes.
Solution Approach 2:
The movable housing portions enable dynamic repositioning of instruments during surgery, allowing the surgeon to adjust the angle and position of each instrument independently. This dynamic adjustment capability provides excellent accessibility to the operative field through a single umbilical incision, resolving the contradiction between cosmetic outcome and ease of operation.
3Adaptability or versatility
If discrete movable housing portions are used, then instrument positioning flexibility is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The device uses flexible members (such as flexible membranes or bellows structures) to couple the discrete housing portions, allowing them to move relative to one another while maintaining a compact, integrated structure. This flexible coupling mechanism provides instrument positioning flexibility without significantly increasing device complexity, as the flexible members naturally accommodate movement while maintaining structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
By segmenting the housing into discrete movable portions coupled by flexible members, the device achieves adaptability for various anatomies and surgical approaches. The segmented design with flexible couplings allows each housing portion to be positioned independently while the overall device remains manageable in complexity, as the flexible members provide natural movement guidance.
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 device facilitates minimally invasive procedures with improved instrument positioning and reduced trauma, enhancing cosmesis and reducing wound complications by allowing flexible and adjustable access through a single incision, suitable for various anatomies.
Implementation Method 1
a flexible member such that each housing portion is independently movable relative to one another
Implementation Method 2
Each housing portion can include at least one sealing element configured to form at least one of a channel seal when no surgical instrument is disposed therethrough and an instrument seal around a surgical instrument inserted therethrough
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and devices are provided for accessing a body cavity. A surgical access device can be configured to be positioned in tissue to provide access through a working channel of the device to a body cavity underlying the tissue. The device can include a flexible member and a plurality of discrete housing portions disposed in at least a proximal portion of an outer housing. Each of the discrete housing portions can be surrounded by the flexible member within the outer housing and be configured to move therein relative to one another and to the outer housing. The flexible member can be configured to act as a barrier between the discrete housing portions such that when one of the discrete housing portions moves, the flexible member can flex to allow the other discrete housing portions to remain in a substantially fixed position relative to the outer housing.