Eye Tissue Needle Guide for Controlled Partial-Thickness Suturing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical methods for inserting sutures in sensitive tissues like the eye rely heavily on individual surgeon skill, leading to uncontrolled penetration that can cause damage, bleeding, retinal tears, and infection risks due to deep penetration.
Innovation Solution
A needle guide tool with a needle guide and proximal holder that allows controlled, stable penetration of a needle and suture at a predetermined depth, preventing accidental perforation of adjacent tissues by ensuring the needle slides alongside a non-penetrating surface, guided by a handle.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual needle loading and penetration is used, then the surgeon has flexibility in technique, but the penetration depth becomes uncontrolled and depends only on individual surgical skills
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a needle guide tool as an intermediary device between the surgeon's manual operation and the needle penetration. The needle guide includes a guide surface that contacts the tissue and a needle holder that positions the needle, serving as a mediator that translates manual operation into controlled penetration depth without requiring the surgeon to directly control the needle insertion depth.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the purely mechanical manual needle insertion system with a guided mechanical system. The needle guide tool provides a mechanical framework with a guide surface and needle holder that work together to constrain and direct the needle penetration depth, substituting the surgeon's manual mechanical control with a structured mechanical guidance system.
2Strength
If full thickness suture is used, then the suture provides strong closure, but it creates a tract for infection by allowing elements from the outside into the eyeball
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by using a needle guide tool that enables partial-thickness penetration only. The guide surface is designed to contact the tissue at a specific depth, allowing the needle to penetrate only the necessary partial thickness to achieve secure suture closure without reaching the full thickness that would create infection pathways. This partial penetration is sufficient for the surgical purpose while avoiding the harmful full-thickness effect.
3Reliability
If deep penetration is used, then the suture achieves full thickness closure, but it causes irreversible damage to internal tissues and exposes them to infections
Solution Approach 1:
The needle guide tool serves as an intermediary protective device. The guide surface acts as a mediator between the needle and the internal tissues, controlling the penetration depth to achieve reliable suture closure in the partial thickness of the sclera while preventing the needle from causing damage to deeper internal structures like the choroid and retina.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements prior cushioning by designing the needle guide tool with a guide surface that preemptively establishes a safe penetration depth limit. This guide surface is positioned and designed beforehand to prevent the needle from penetrating too deeply, cushioning against the potential harm of deep penetration before it can occur during the surgical procedure.
4Device complexity
If handheld needle holder is used, then the device is simple, but the penetration depth cannot be standardized and varies with individual surgical skills
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the needle guide tool into distinct functional components: a guide surface for tissue contact and depth control, a needle holder for needle positioning, and a handle for operation. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function precisely, ensuring consistent penetration depth while maintaining relative simplicity through modular design.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the critical parameter of penetration depth from being operator-dependent to being geometrically determined. The guide surface is designed with specific dimensions and contact characteristics that define a predetermined penetration depth, transforming the control mechanism from manual skill-based to geometric constraint-based, thereby ensuring depth consistency.
Data Source
AI summary
A method is provided for passing a needle and a suture coupled thereto through tissue of a portion of an eye. A needle guide of a needle guide tool is positioned such that a needle-guide surface of the needle guide contacts a body-portion surface of the eye portion, while a proximal needle holder of the needle guide tool holds the needle such that a longitudinal segment of the needle runs alongside the needle-guide surface at a non-zero distance therefrom. The needle-guide surface is distally slid along the body-portion surface such that a distal needle tip penetrates the body-portion surface, passes within the tissue at a depth no more than the non-zero distance, and exits the body-portion surface, while the needle guide and the needle remain outside the eye portion. Thereafter, the needle is released from the proximal needle holder. Other embodiments are also described.