Foldable Sterile Template for Breast Implant Positioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical procedures for breast reconstruction and other body implant placements lack accurate guides for positioning and securing implants, leading to potential complications due to rough estimation and minimal touch techniques.
Innovation Solution
A sterile, disposable, and foldable measurement template specifically designed for each type of tabbed tissue expander or breast implant, featuring projections and apertures that correspond to the implant's attachment points, aiding in precise placement during surgery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a minimal touch technique is used to avoid contamination, then the risk of infection is reduced, but the ability to accurately position the implant is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a template as an intermediary tool that bridges the gap between the surgeon and the implant. The template is placed on the patient's body to mark the precise implant placement location, allowing the surgeon to maintain minimal contact with the implant while achieving accurate positioning. The template serves as a mediator that enables both low-contamination technique and high-precision placement.
Solution Approach 2:
The template allows for preliminary marking of the implant placement site before the actual implant insertion. By pre-marking the correct position on the patient's body, the surgeon can then proceed with minimal touch to the implant itself, as the positioning guidance has already been established through the template's pre-planned aperture locations.
2Reliability
If the template is made sterile and disposable, then the reliability of the surgical procedure is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The template is designed as a single-use, disposable item that is sterilized and discarded after use. This approach eliminates the need for complex cleaning, sterilization cycles, and reuse protocols, thereby maintaining high reliability through consistent sterility while avoiding the complexity of reusable device maintenance. The low cost and simple structure of the disposable template make it ideal for this application.
3Ease of operation
If the template is designed to be foldable, then the ease of operation during surgery is improved, but the manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The template is designed with foldable segments or creases that allow it to be collapsed into a compact form for storage and transport, then easily unfolded during surgery to its full functional size. The segmentation into foldable sections enables the template to be manipulated easily by the surgeon while maintaining the precision of the aperture locations when in its operational state.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure provides devices, systems, and methods relating to performing a medical procedure. In particular, the present disclosure is directed to devices, systems, and methods for accurately positioning and securing a body implant in a subject. A template corresponds to the implant, and the template is configured to mark a desired location in a patient prior to positioning the implant at the desired location.