Disposable Device Shield for Skin Grafting Fluid Ingress Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing skin grafting systems face challenges in preventing the ingress of clinical soil, such as blood and other fluids, into reusable components, which can lead to increased sterilization requirements and potential infection risks.
Innovation Solution
A skin grafting system with a handheld device, a cartridge, and a disposable device shield formed of a polymer or flexible membrane that creates a barrier to prevent fluid ingress during the grafting process, protecting the reusable components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conventional skin grafting system is used without fluid barrier protection, then the grafting procedure can be performed, but clinical soil (blood and fluids) can ingress into the reusable handheld device, requiring extensive cleaning and sterilization
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the disposable principle by introducing a single-use shield that is discarded after one procedure. This disposable barrier protects the reusable handheld device from fluid ingress, eliminating the need for complex sterilization of the entire device and reducing infection risk without compromising the reliability of the grafting system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a flexible membrane or polymer shield that forms a fluid-tight barrier. This thin film structure effectively prevents clinical soil from penetrating into the handheld device while maintaining flexibility for proper positioning during the grafting procedure, thereby reducing both infection risk and sterilization complexity.
2Ease of manufacture
If a disposable device shield is added to prevent fluid ingress, then cleaning and sterilization requirements are reduced, but the device structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the device into distinct functional components: a reusable handheld device and a disposable shield. This segmentation allows the shield to be optimized for fluid barrier function while the handheld device maintains its core grafting functionality, simplifying the overall manufacturing process for each component despite the added structural element.
Solution Approach 2:
The disposable shield acts as an intermediary barrier between the clinical environment and the reusable handheld device. This intermediate protective layer simplifies manufacturing by allowing each component to be optimized for its specific function, while the shield's straightforward design (a barrier with opening) minimizes the increase in overall device complexity.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2B
Figure 3A
AI summary
A skin grafting system having a handheld device, a cartridge, and a device shield. The handheld device includes a device housing forming an interior that secures a drive system. The cartridge includes a plurality of hollow microneedles surrounded by a peripheral housing and is configured to be operated by the drive system to extend and retract past the peripheral housing into a subject to harvest tissue during a skin grafting process. The device shield is formed of a polymer extending from an interior opening to an exterior edge, the interior opening sized to extend about the peripheral housing to positon the exterior edge over the device housing to control ingress of fluids into the interior of the device housing from fluid about the peripheral housing of the cartridge during the skin grafting process performed using the skin grafting system.