Integral-Knife Stapler Cartridge with Automatic Blade Retraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing minimally invasive surgical stapling devices face issues with knives becoming dull after multiple uses, leading to complex and costly designs with potential failure modes, especially in reloadable cartridges where the knife is integral to the surgical instrument.
Innovation Solution
A stapling cartridge design with an integral knife member that retracts into the cartridge body after use, ensuring a sharp knife for each operation, simplifying the actuation mechanism, and reducing costs by integrating the knife with the cartridge, which is discarded after use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the knife is integral to the surgical instrument and reused across multiple cartridges, then device complexity is reduced, but the knife becomes duller with each use
Solution Approach 1:
The surgical system is segmented into a reusable surgical instrument and a disposable cartridge that includes the knife. The knife is integrated into the cartridge rather than the main instrument, allowing the cartridge to be discarded after a single use while the instrument remains reusable. This resolves the contradiction by separating the permanent component (instrument) from the consumable component (cartridge with knife).
Solution Approach 2:
The cartridge containing the knife is designed as a disposable, single-use component. Instead of reusing the knife across multiple operations, a new cartridge with a fresh knife is used for each surgical procedure. This ensures consistent knife sharpness and cutting performance while keeping the overall system cost-effective through standardized disposable cartridges.
2Reliability
If the knife is integral to the cartridge and discarded with the spent cartridge, then a fresh knife is ensured for each operation, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The knife, cartridge body, and actuation mechanism are merged into a single integrated cartridge assembly. This consolidation eliminates the need for complex knife storage, retrieval, and return mechanisms in the reusable instrument. The simplified design reduces overall system complexity while ensuring a fresh knife for each use through disposable cartridges.
Solution Approach 2:
The cartridge is designed to be self-contained and self-actuating. The actuation mechanism within the cartridge automatically drives the knife through the tissue and returns it to its starting position as part of the single-use operation. This self-service approach eliminates the need for complex external control mechanisms, reducing device complexity while maintaining reliable knife performance.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the knife must be returned to its starting position, then safety is improved, but actuation mechanism complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The knife is nested within the cartridge body in a retracted position during storage and transport. During operation, the knife extends from the cartridge to perform cutting, then automatically returns to its nested retracted position. This nesting arrangement provides inherent safety by concealing the sharp blade while minimizing the complexity of the return mechanism through elastic recovery or spring-loaded automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The actuation mechanism automatically returns the knife to its starting position as part of the single-stroke operation. This self-service feature ensures safety by automatically retracting the blade without requiring manual intervention or complex multi-step control mechanisms. The automated return simplifies the overall actuation system while maintaining safe knife management.
Data Source
AI summary
Stapler cartridges and surgical apparatus that include a stapler cartridge can include a knife that retracts into the stapler cartridge after cutting stapled tissue to prevent an operator being cut by the knife during replacement of the used stapler cartridge with a new stapler cartridge. A stapler cartridge includes a staple pushing shuttle, a knife member slidably coupled with the staple pushing shuttle, and a cartridge body. The staple pushing shuttle is slidably coupled to the cartridge body. The cartridge body includes a guide track engaged by the knife member and configured so that a cutting blade of the knife member protrudes from the cartridge body during a first portion of a distal movement of the staple pushing shuttle and the cutting blade is retracted into the cartridge body during a second portion of the distal movement of the staple pushing shuttle.