Low Source Impedance Insufflator for Stable Laparoscopic Pressure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current insufflation devices for minimal access surgery have limited adaptation abilities to cope with pressure changes in the body cavity, leading to rapid pressure variations during procedures like mechanical ventilation or coughing, which can impair venous return and systemic circulation.
Innovation Solution
An insufflator apparatus with a pressure regulator and controller that allows for real-time adaptation of insufflation rates and includes a vent mechanism to manage excess gas volume, maintaining a constant average pressure by temporarily storing returning gas, thus reducing impedance and accommodating pressure changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If high-pressure insufflation gas source with valve control is used, then insufflation pressure can be maintained, but rapid pressure variations occur in the body cavity during mechanical ventilation or coughing
Solution Approach 1:
A compliant tube is introduced as an intermediary element between the insufflation gas source and the body cavity. This tube acts as a mechanical buffer that can expand and contract to absorb rapid pressure variations, allowing the high-pressure gas source to maintain overall pressure stability while adapting to transient changes during ventilation or coughing.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-establishes a compliant connection that can absorb pressure shocks before they reach the body cavity. The compliant tubing is designed with specific elasticity characteristics to cushion rapid pressure changes in advance, preventing harmful pressure spikes while maintaining the desired insufflation pressure level.
2Stress or pressure
If insufflation pressure is increased to maintain surgical workspace, then surgical field is created, but venous return and systemic circulation are impaired
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from static pressure maintenance to dynamic pressure adaptation. The compliant tubing allows the insufflation system to dynamically respond to changes in intrathoracic pressure, automatically adjusting the effective pressure delivered to the body cavity to prevent harmful effects on venous return while maintaining adequate surgical workspace.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the physical parameter of the gas delivery pathway by using compliant tubing with specific elastic properties. This parameter change allows the system to accommodate pressure variations without increasing the mean insufflation pressure, thereby reducing harmful effects on circulation while maintaining surgical utility.
3Reliability
If release valve is used to prevent overpressure, then pressure safety is ensured, but rapid pressure variations cannot be dynamically compensated
Solution Approach 1:
The compliant tube serves as a mediator between the pressure regulation system and the body cavity, providing continuous passive compensation for rapid pressure changes. This intermediary element responds instantaneously to pressure variations without requiring active control, thereby maintaining both safety and rapid response capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The compliant tubing provides self-service pressure compensation through its inherent elastic properties. The tube automatically expands and contracts in response to pressure changes, providing dynamic compensation without requiring external control systems or active intervention, thus maintaining both reliability and speed of response.
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
This solution maintains a stable insufflation pressure, reducing the burden on patients' ventilation and hemodynamics, and allows for independent operation without synchronization with mechanical ventilators, effectively compensating for pressure perturbations within the surgical space.
Implementation Method 1
the pressure regulator has a limited volume for temporarily storing a gas returning from the body cavity to thereby avoid transient pressure deviations from the set average pressure level in the body cavity
Data Source
AI summary
In an aspect of the invention there is provided an insufflator apparatus for exposing structures within a cavity of the human body for a diagnostic and/or therapeutic endoscopic procedure, comprising: an insufflation gas supply valve, adapted to provide insufflation gas to a pressure regulator; the pressure regulator, adapted to supply insufflation gas into the cavity of the human body via an input mechanism attachable to the human body, a means for determining a pressure level in the body cavity; an insufflator vent mechanism adapted to release excess insufflation gas volume returning from the pressure regulator; an insufflator controller arranged to real-time adapt an insufflation rate of said insufflation gas via said gas supply valve and vent mechanism at a set average pressure level in the body cavity in accordance with the means for determining the pressure level in the body cavity; and wherein the pressure regulator has a limited volume for temporarily storing a gas returning from the body cavity to thereby avoid transient pressure deviations from the set average pressure level in the body cavity, e.g. due to coughing or mechanical ventilation and s allowing the gas to return to the body cavity to maintain the set average pressure.