Laparoscopic Oximeter Tip With Reusable Electronics
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing oximeters face challenges in improving form factor, measurement accuracy, reducing measurement time, lowering cost, and reducing size and power consumption, particularly in clinical settings where rapid and accurate oxygen saturation measurements are crucial for assessing tissue health.
Innovation Solution
A laparoscopic medical device with an oximeter sensor at its tip, allowing for intraoperative tissue oximetry measurements, featuring a separable design with reusable electronics and disposable laparoscopic elements, and wireless communication with a display for real-time data processing and display.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If oximeters are designed with integrated electronics and sensor in a single unit, then device complexity is reduced and ease of operation is improved, but cost increases and ability to reuse components is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The oximeter is divided into two separate components: a reusable electronics housing containing the processing unit, battery, and display, and a disposable laparoscopic element containing the oximeter sensor. This segmentation allows the expensive electronics to be reused across multiple patients while the disposable element ensures sterility and eliminates complex sterilization requirements, thereby reducing overall cost while maintaining ease of operation.
2Reliability
If oximeters are designed as disposable single-use units, then reliability and measurement accuracy are ensured for each patient, but cost increases and waste is generated
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the oximeter into reusable electronics and disposable laparoscopic elements, the system ensures reliability for each patient through single-use sterile elements while preserving expensive electronic components for reuse. This resolves the contradiction by allowing reliability without requiring complete disposability of the entire device.
Solution Approach 2:
The disposable laparoscopic element is discarded after single use to ensure reliability and prevent cross-contamination, while the expensive electronics housing is recovered and reused for subsequent patients. This selective discarding and recovering strategy maintains reliability while reducing cost and waste.
3Adaptability or versatility
If oximeter sensors are made smaller for minimally invasive laparoscopic use, then adaptability to surgical environments is improved, but measurement precision may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The oximeter sensor is designed with flexible printed circuit board technology that allows it to conform to curved tissue surfaces while maintaining its measurement capabilities. This dynamic adaptability enables the small sensor to achieve accurate measurements on irregular tissue geometries during laparoscopic surgery, resolving the contradiction between size and precision.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables rapid, accurate, and cost-effective oxygen saturation measurements in challenging surgical environments, facilitating quick assessment of tissue viability and reducing waste by allowing reuse of expensive components.
Implementation Method 1
Light absorption differs significantly for oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobins at certain wavelengths of light. Tissue oximeters can measure oxygen levels in human tissue by exploiting these light-absorption differences.
Data Source
AI summary
A laparoscopic medical device includes an oximeter sensor at its tip, which allows the making of oxygen saturation measurements laparoscopically. The device can be a unitary design, wherein a laparoscopic element includes electronics for the oximeter sensor at a distal end (e.g., opposite the tip). The device can be a multiple piece design (e.g., two-piece design), where some electronics is in a separate housing from the laparoscopic element, and the pieces (or portions) are removably connected together. The laparoscopic element can be removed and disposed of; so, the electronics can be reused multiple times with replacement laparoscopic elements. The electronics can include a processing unit for control, computation, or display, or any combination of these. However, in an implementation, the electronics can connect wirelessly to other electronics (e.g., another processing unit) for further control, computation, or display, or any combination of these.