Endoscopic Snare Mesh for Tissue Capture During Incision

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current endoscopic surgical tools often require separate instruments for incising and capturing tissue, leading to difficulties in locating and retrieving targeted tissues, such as polyps, which can result in missed biopsies and delayed cancer detection if the tissue is lost.

Innovation Solution

An endoscopic snare apparatus with rotatable snare wires and a mesh attachment that allows for simultaneous incision, capture, and removal of tissue pieces, featuring a control wire mechanism to deploy and retract the snare, and a mouth cord to support the mesh for enhanced tissue retention.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If separate incising tools and retrieval tools are used, then the tissue can be incised and captured, but the surgeon cannot see where incised tissues are located and spends a lot of time looking for them, and sometimes the incised tissues are lost

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetissue retrieval reliabilityVSAvoidtime to locate tissue
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent combines the incising function and retrieval function into a single integrated endoscopic snare device. The snare wire both cuts the tissue and forms a basket structure that captures the incised tissue, eliminating the need for separate tools and ensuring the tissue remains visible and recoverable throughout the procedure

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The snare wire is designed to perform multiple functions: it acts as both a cutting instrument and a retrieval basket. The same component that incises the tissue also forms the capture structure, making the device universal for both incision and retrieval operations

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Reliability

If separate incising tools and retrieval tools are used, then the tissue can be incised and captured, but the incised tissues are sometimes lost and never found, which means they are never biopsied

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetissue capture reliabilityVSAvoiddisease detection efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

By merging the incising and retrieval functions into one device, the patent ensures that the tissue captured is the same tissue that was just incised, eliminating the risk of capturing wrong tissue or losing the specimen, thereby ensuring reliable biopsy samples for disease detection

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

3Reliability

If a mesh attachment is added to the snare, then tissue retention is enhanced, but the device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetissue retentionVSAvoidsnare structure complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The snare is divided into functional segments: the snare wire for incision and the mesh attachment for retention. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function while maintaining overall simplicity through modular design

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentEP3716870B1Endoscopic snare
Publication Date: 2023.06.21 SALEH RAFIC
  • EP3716870B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3716870B1 patent drawingFigure 2~4
  • EP3716870B1 patent drawingFigure 5~6

AI summary

An endoscopic snare device (10, 100, 100') includes a pair of bowed, resiliently deformable, snare wires (12, 14) with bow shaped memory, a mesh (20) attached to mid-portions (16, 18) and distal portions (22, 24) of the snare wires (12, 14) for a mesh length (A) that is less than the snare length (L), a bowed, resiliently deformable, support wire (116) extending in a plane out of the plane of the snare wires (12, 14), and a pair of bowed, resiliently deformable, incising wires (112, 114) side by side with the snare wires (12, 14). The support wire (116) is electrically insulated. A mouth cord or wire (46) extends from one snare wire (12), through the support wire (116), and to the other snare wire (14).