Finger-Worn Guidewire Guide for Precise Bone Entry
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical devices fail to effectively assist surgeons in accurately inserting guidewires into bones, especially in minimally invasive procedures, due to difficulties in maintaining orientation and positioning, often requiring additional imaging and causing glove puncture or slippage.
Innovation Solution
A surgical assistance device with a ring-shaped band and clasp jaws that allows for secure guidewire placement and orientation, enabling the guidewire to be maintained in position even when the device is removed from the finger, using a mechanism that swivels or pivots to open and close around the guidewire.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a surgeon uses manual palpation and hand-held drilling to insert guidewires, then the surgeon can directly feel bone location, but it is difficult to maintain proper guidewire orientation and positioning due to tissue interference and lack of guidance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a finger-worn guidance device as an intermediary tool between the surgeon's hand and the guidewire. This device includes a channel that guides the guidewire and a clasp mechanism that secures it, providing mechanical assistance to maintain proper orientation and positioning during insertion through soft tissue to bone.
Solution Approach 2:
The guidance device is designed to be worn on the surgeon's finger, allowing the surgeon to use their own finger as the support structure. The device self-adjusts to the finger shape and provides automatic guidance alignment when the finger is positioned on the bone, eliminating the need for separate positioning mechanisms.
2Measurement precision
If imaging equipment is used to facilitate guidewire drilling, then guidewire orientation can be visualized, but device complexity and procedural time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex imaging systems with a simple mechanical guidance channel formed by the clasp jaws. The channel provides physical constraints that naturally guide the guidewire along the desired trajectory, substituting optical/electronic imaging with a purely mechanical solution that is already present in the surgical field.
3Reliability
If the surgeon keeps one hand on the patient's femur to maintain positioning, then bone location can be felt, but the other hand must operate the drill, making it difficult to maintain guidewire orientation
Solution Approach 1:
The guidance device acts as a mediator that connects the surgeon's finger (which is already in contact with the bone for localization) to the guidewire. This allows the surgeon to maintain hand placement on the bone for tactile feedback while the device handles the guidewire orientation and positioning automatically through its channel and clasp mechanism.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If mini-incisions are used to reduce tissue trauma, then patient recovery is improved, but achieving proper guidewire positioning becomes technically more challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The guidance device leverages the surgeon's existing finger position and tactile feedback capability to automatically provide guidance. The device self-adjusts to the finger shape and bone location, providing accurate guidewire orientation through the limited mini-incision without requiring additional equipment or complex manual manipulation.
Data Source
AI summary
A surgical assistance device has a ring band that is worn on a surgeon's finger from which opposed clasp jaws extend. The opposed clasp jaws define a channel configured to receive a guidewire to be inserted into a patient's bone. The surgeon locates a desired entry point for the guidewire with his or her finger on which the ring band is worn, and thereby positions the channel of the device to receive the guidewire so that such guidewire when inserted through the channel is directed in the desired entry point and into the patient. The surgeon maintains his or her finger at the desired location during guidewire insertion, and then detaches the device from the installed guidewire by separating the opposed clasp jaws.