Endoscopic Portal Shield for Nerve Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Minimally invasive spine surgery faces challenges due to reduced and two-dimensional visibility, limited expandability of the surgical field, and risks of nerve injury during procedures, which can lead to complications such as dural tears, nerve root damage, and bleeding, especially when repositioning instruments or performing bone resection.
Innovation Solution
An endoscopic portal protective shield assembly with an elongate portal shaft and a detachable protective shield that can be positioned to shield nerve roots or blood vessels, allowing for enhanced visualization and protection during surgical procedures, enabling precise targeting and minimizing complications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a protective shield is added to shield nerve roots and blood vessels, then protection against injury is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The protective shield is designed as a separate, detachable component that can be independently inserted and removed from the endoscope portal. This segmentation allows the shield function to be added without permanently complicating the base endoscope design, enabling surgeons to use the shield only when protection is needed during specific surgical maneuvers.
Solution Approach 2:
The protective shield acts as an intermediary element between the surgical instruments and the delicate neural structures. It provides a physical barrier that prevents direct contact between instruments and nerve roots or blood vessels during instrument repositioning or bone resection, thereby reducing injury risk without requiring fundamental changes to the surgical technique.
2Ease of operation
If the surgical field is expanded through bone resection, then accessibility to surgical site is improved, but risk of nerve injury increases
Solution Approach 1:
The protective shield is positioned and secured to the endoscope portal before bone resection or instrument repositioning activities that carry high risk of nerve injury. This preliminary placement ensures that the protective barrier is already in place when dangerous maneuvers are performed, allowing surgeons to expand the surgical field with reduced concern for nerve damage.
Solution Approach 2:
The protective shield performs a preliminary anti-action by preemptively blocking potential harmful contact between surgical instruments and neural structures. By establishing this protective barrier before risky operations, the system counteracts the inherent dangers of bone resection and instrument manipulation near sensitive areas.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If minimally invasive technique is used, then access trauma is reduced, but visibility and surgical field expandability are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The endoscope portal assembly is designed to serve multiple functions: it provides the minimally invasive access channel, supports the protective shield for nerve protection, and maintains the viewing portal for surgical visualization. This multi-functionality allows the same portal structure to enable both trauma reduction through small incisions and enhanced safety through protective shielding without requiring separate access points.
Data Source
AI summary
An endoscopic portal protective shield assembly has an elongate portal shaft and an elongated protective shield. The elongate portal shaft has a viewing portal. The shaft has a slotted tubular body with interior surfaces. The shaft has a distal end and a proximal end and a slotted opening at the distal end extending partially along the slotted tubular body toward the proximal end. The elongated protective shield has a longitudinal shield body, a proximal end and a distal end. The protective shield is configured to be slid into the slotted opening of the tubular body with an interior portion of the longitudinal shield body being inserted inside the tubular body while maintaining the viewing portal open.