Flexible Staple Lines with Movable Legs for Tissue Stretching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing surgical stapling instruments lack the ability to create flexible staple lines that can accommodate tissue movement and maintain integrity during stretching, leading to potential complications and reduced efficacy.
Innovation Solution
The development of a surgical stapling instrument that deploys staples oriented transversely or obliquely to tissue incisions, allowing them to translate and rotate within the tissue, thereby creating flexibility and maintaining staple line integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional surgical stapling instruments are used to create staple lines, then the staple line is rigid and maintains structural integrity, but it cannot accommodate tissue movement and stretching, leading to potential complications
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by designing staples with movable legs that can translate and rotate relative to each other after deployment. The staple legs are configured to move dynamically in response to tissue stretching and movement, allowing the staple line to adapt to changing tissue conditions while maintaining closure integrity. This transforms the rigid static structure into a dynamic system that responds to physiological movements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the staple structure into multiple independent movable legs that can move relative to each other. Each staple leg acts as an independent unit capable of translation and rotation, allowing the overall staple line to flex and adapt to tissue movement while maintaining the segmented structural integrity of individual staples.
2Loss of substance
If staples are deployed in a traditional rigid arrangement, then the staple line maintains structural stability, but it causes increased blood loss due to inability to limit flow through flexible arrangements
Solution Approach 1:
The dynamic movement of staple legs allows the staple line to conform to tissue contours and movements, creating a more effective barrier against blood flow. As tissue stretches or moves, the movable legs maintain contact and overlap, dynamically adapting to limit blood flow paths more effectively than a rigid structure could achieve.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the staple structure by allowing translation and rotation of staple legs after deployment. This parameter change enables the staple line to adjust its configuration in response to tissue movement, maintaining optimal blood flow limitation while accommodating physiological changes in the tissue.
3Adaptability or versatility
If staples are oriented transversely or obliquely to tissue incisions with translation and rotation capability, then flexibility and tissue accommodation are enhanced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The segmentation of the staple into multiple movable legs provides the complexity needed for translation and rotation capabilities. Each leg is a separate movable component that can independently respond to tissue forces, enabling the sophisticated movement patterns required for enhanced tissue accommodation while keeping the overall design modular and manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The ability to change the orientation and position parameters of staple legs through translation and rotation provides the adaptability for enhanced tissue accommodation. These parameter changes are achieved through the mechanical design of the staple structure, allowing the staples to orient themselves optimally relative to tissue incisions and movements.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for creating a flexible fastener line is disclosed. The fastener line comprises fasteners oriented in directions which are transverse or oblique to a tissue incision created by a cutting member. The fasteners can translate and/or rotate within the tissue when the tissue is stretched thereby creating flexibility within the tissue.