Lateral-Slit Spacer for Precise Surgical Insertion Depth
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Solution Overview
Problem
In minimally invasive surgery, the depth of insertion of medical instruments into the body varies significantly among patients due to anatomical differences, posing a risk of injury or unintended tissue damage, as existing instruments lack a reliable mechanism to consistently limit insertion depth.
Innovation Solution
A spacer system with a distal abutment and a releasable mounting device, featuring a lateral slit aperture, allows for adjustable and precise limitation of insertion depth by fitting onto the instrument's shaft, enabling varying depths of insertion to be set and adapted to individual anatomical needs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the shaft length is fixed to enable easy manufacture and operation, then the instrument can be quickly introduced into the body, but the insertion depth cannot be precisely controlled and may cause tissue damage
Solution Approach 1:
The shaft is divided into a permanent main shaft and a removable spacer element. The spacer can be attached or detached based on patient anatomy, allowing precise depth control without changing the main shaft design. This segmentation enables both easy manufacture of the main shaft and customizable depth control.
Solution Approach 2:
The shaft length is made dynamically adjustable through the removable spacer element. The spacer can be attached before insertion or even during the procedure, transforming the fixed-length shaft into a variable-length configuration that adapts to different anatomical conditions while maintaining manufacturing simplicity.
2Length of moving object
If the shaft length is extended to reach deeper tissue sites, then the instrument can access more anatomical locations, but the risk of injuring subjacent healthy tissue increases
Solution Approach 1:
The appropriate spacer length is determined in advance based on preoperative measurements of the patient's anatomy. The spacer is selected and attached before the insertion procedure, ensuring that the shaft length is precisely matched to the required depth without exceeding safe limits, thereby preventing injury to healthy tissue.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback through preoperative anatomical measurements that inform the selection of spacer length. This feedback loop ensures the shaft is configured to the exact depth needed for the procedure, avoiding both insufficient reach and excessive insertion that could damage healthy tissue.
3Ease of operation
If the spacer is made with a lateral slit aperture for side mounting, then the spacer can be fitted after insertion, but the mounting mechanism becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The lateral slit aperture acts as an intermediary mechanism that simplifies mounting. The slit allows the spacer to be flexed and inserted sideways onto the shaft, then expanded to lock in place. This intermediary design enables post-insertion attachment without requiring complex locking mechanisms or tools.
4Adaptability or versatility
If multiple spacer elements can be coupled together, then the depth limitation can be precisely adjusted, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The depth control system is segmented into multiple standardized spacer elements that can be coupled together. Each spacer represents a discrete depth increment, allowing precise adjustment by selecting and coupling the appropriate number of elements. This segmentation provides versatile depth adjustment while maintaining simple, modular coupling mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
The spacer serves for limiting the depth of insertion of a shaft of a medical instrument into a body of a patient. The spacer has a distal abutment for bearing on a body of a patient. The spacer has a spacer element extending along a length section of the shaft of the medical instrument. A device for releasably mounting the spacer on the shaft has an aperture via which the spacer can be mounted laterally to the shaft. For it the aperture is designed as a lateral slit aperture.