Surgical Fastener with Expandable Prongs for Deep Wound Closure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical fasteners are inadequate for rapidly closing deep wounds, as they cannot appose bulky tissue masses and are not easily removable, and subcuticular suturing is time-consuming and tedious.
Innovation Solution
Development of surgical fasteners with a piercing part featuring tapered, sharpened prongs that expand at skin temperature and are magnetically attracted, allowing for rapid closure and easy removal, suitable for various wound depths including dermis, fascia, and muscle layers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If surgical staplers and clips are used for rapid wound closure, then the speed of wound closure is improved, but they cannot appose bulky tissue masses in deep wounds
Solution Approach 1:
The fastener design incorporates expandable arms that change their dimensional parameters from a compressed delivery state to an expanded apposition state. The arms are designed to expand radially outward after deployment, enabling them to reach and appose deep tissue masses while maintaining rapid closure capability. This parameter change allows the same device to achieve both speed and depth adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The fastener transitions from a static compressed state during delivery to a dynamic expanded state during apposition. The arms are designed with inherent expandability, allowing them to dynamically adjust their configuration to match the depth and geometry of the wound, thereby apposing bulky tissue masses effectively while maintaining rapid deployment.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If subcuticular suturing is performed to minimize visible scarring, then cosmetic outcome is improved, but the procedure becomes very tedious and time consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces the manual mechanical suturing process with a mechanically deployed fastener system. The fastener is delivered through a applicator device that automatically positions and deploys the arms beneath the skin surface, substituting the tedious manual needle-and-thread suturing process with a single-action mechanical deployment that achieves the same subcuticular closure effect.
Solution Approach 2:
The fastener arms are pre-configured in a compressed state within the applicator, ready for immediate deployment. The applicator device pre-positions the fastener at the wound site, and a single actuating motion deploys the arms into the subcuticular layer, performing the entire closure action in advance of the healing process without requiring time-consuming manual manipulation.
3Reliability
If bio-absorbable resinous materials are used for fasteners, then biocompatibility is improved, but tensile strength is lost after a few weeks of exposure
Solution Approach 1:
The fastener employs a composite material structure combining bio-absorbable resinous materials with reinforcement elements. The base material provides biocompatibility and biodegradability, while embedded reinforcement fibers or a composite matrix structure maintains tensile strength over time. This composite approach allows the fastener to retain sufficient strength for the initial healing period while remaining biocompatible and eventually biodegradable.
Solution Approach 2:
The fastener design incorporates regions of different material properties within the same structure. The arm portions that require high strength retention have enhanced material composition or structural reinforcement, while other portions maintain high biocompatibility and biodegradability. This local differentiation of material quality allows simultaneous optimization of both strength retention and biocompatibility in different functional zones of the fastener.
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
Enables rapid closure of deep wounds with minimal scarring and quick removal, available in various sizes for different wound depths, suitable for diverse medical settings and emergency situations.
Implementation Method 1
prongs that expand at skin temperature
Implementation Method 2
magnetically attracted
Data Source
AI summary
A surgical fastener that has an urging part and a piercing part. The urging part is formed to urge the piercing part to move between open and closed positions. The piercing part includes a pair of piercing prongs that terminate at tips, which taper into a sharpened condition to pierce through skin tissue under manual force. The piercing prongs each having a different radius of curvature so that the tips overlap each other as the piercing part reaches the closed position and that spread apart from each other as the piercing part reaches the open position. At least one of the urging part and the piercing part including a mechanism that tends to urge the tips of the piercing prongs closer to each other as the piercing part moves to the closed position from the open position.