Laparoscopic Retractor Mesh Hammock Atraumatic Tissue Retraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current laparoscopic, endoscopic, and robotic surgery retraction methods often cause tissue damage through grasping or crushing, leading to ischemia, rupture, and poor visualization of the operative field, especially in areas like the paraaortic region obscured by small bowel loops in obese patients.
Innovation Solution
A tissue retraction apparatus that wraps a mesh material around the tissue in a cradle-like fashion, using a deployable 'hammock' mechanism with magnets for fixation, allowing for atraumatic retraction and improved visualization by minimizing tissue damage and providing intuitive operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If current laparoscopic retraction instrumentation uses grasping or crushing type maneuvers to move tissues, then tissue retraction capability is improved, but tissue damage and trauma increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible mesh material that wraps around tissue structures in a cradle-like fashion, replacing rigid grasping instruments. This flexible membrane conforms to the tissue shape and provides gentle retraction without crushing or pinching, directly resolving the contradiction between retraction capability and tissue damage prevention
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of actively grasping or crushing tissue with rigid instruments, the invention inverts the approach by using a passive flexible mesh that envelops and supports tissue from all sides. The mesh is pulled taut to create gentle retraction forces, fundamentally changing from active compression to passive support
2Ease of manufacture
If minimally invasive surgery is used in obese patients, then surgical access is improved, but visualization of the operative field deteriorates due to obscuring bowel loops
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible mesh acts as an intermediary tool that gently displaces and repositions bowel loops away from the operative field without causing trauma. By wrapping around and holding bowel structures in retracted positions, it clears the surgical field for better visualization while maintaining minimally invasive access
Solution Approach 2:
The mesh material's flexibility and conformability allow it to adapt to various anatomical configurations in obese patients, changing its shape and position parameters to effectively clear different bowel loop arrangements from the operative field while maintaining gentle tissue interaction
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
The solution enables atraumatic retraction of tissues, reduces the risk of damage, and enhances minimally invasive surgery by improving intra-operative visualization, thus reducing recovery times and costs.
Implementation Method 1
The distal coupling member and the proximal coupling member are selectively coupleable to each other... One or both of the distal coupling member and the proximal coupling member may be a magnet
Data Source
AI summary
Some devices for atraumatic retraction of tissue include a transcatheter deployable mesh hammock that is well-suited for laparoscopic, endoscopic, and robotic surgeries. Methods for atraumatic retraction of tissue include wrapping a mesh material around the tissue in a cradle-like fashion. In some embodiments, magnetic coupling of the proximal and distal ends of the mesh material can provide tissue containment and retractor securement to facilitate tissue retraction.