Epidural Targeting System with Pusher-Probe Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current needle injection techniques for administering medicinal substances, such as epidural anesthesia, are often 'blind' and prone to errors due to reliance on tactile feedback, leading to potential harm from overshooting and incorrect placement, which can result in complications like post-dural puncture headaches and paralysis.
Innovation Solution
A system featuring a cannular member with a pusher-probe that undergoes controlled protrusion and retraction cycles within the cannula lumen, allowing for precise mechanical manipulation and resistance measurement of tissue properties, facilitating accurate identification and targeting of anatomic locations like the epidural space.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If blind needle injection techniques are used, then the procedure is simple and quick, but the placement accuracy is poor and harmful factors increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism by measuring tissue resistance during needle advancement. A force sensor detects changes in resistance as the needle passes through different tissue layers, providing real-time information to the operator about needle depth and position, thereby improving placement accuracy without significantly complicating the procedure
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces purely tactile mechanical feedback with an instrumented measurement system. Force sensors and electronic measurement devices substitute for the operator's tactile sense, providing objective, quantifiable data about tissue resistance that improves measurement precision while maintaining operational simplicity
2Device complexity
If tactile feedback based techniques are used, then the equipment is simple, but the measurement precision of tissue properties is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent substitutes tactile mechanical assessment with electronic force sensing. A force sensor integrated into the needle assembly provides precise, objective measurement of tissue resistance, replacing the subjective tactile feedback that limits measurement precision while adding minimal complexity to the equipment
Solution Approach 2:
The measurement system is self-contained within the needle assembly itself. The force sensor is integrated into the needle, allowing it to measure tissue resistance during normal advancement without requiring separate measurement devices or additional procedural steps, thus maintaining equipment simplicity
3Productivity
If needle advancement continues without monitoring, then the procedure is fast, but the risk of overshooting and puncturing dura mater increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses real-time feedback from force sensors to monitor tissue resistance during needle advancement. When the needle approaches the dura mater, the resistance pattern changes, providing an early warning signal that allows the operator to slow down or stop advancement, preventing overshooting while maintaining overall procedure efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary detection of tissue resistance changes before the needle actually reaches critical structures. By monitoring resistance patterns during advancement, the system provides advance warning of approaching dura mater, allowing preventive action before overshooting occurs
Data Source
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AI summary
Identifying target anatomic locations in a subject's body, and delivering medicinal substances thereto, following transtissual progression (penetrating, cutting through body tissue) and reaching body tissue with medical device distal tip. Involves acquiring mechanical properties of body tissue. Exemplary medicinal substance is, or includes, a drug (anesthetic agent), and exemplary target anatomic location is epidural space in subject's body. Exemplary system includes: cannular member enclosing cannula lumen; pusher-probe having distal end in cannula lumen and positionable from retracted to protruding positions, wherein pusher-probe distal end protrudes out of cannula distal end; and extending mechanism including cam member, a follower shiftable from first to second stations on cam member, and plunger selectively traveling in cannula lumen while forcing relative motion between cam member and follower, wherein pusher-probe distal end repositions between retracted and protruding positions. Optionally, includes data-information analyzing device having triggering mechanism via a winged hub member and associated components.