Minimally Invasive Suture Cutter With Lever-Driven Blade
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need for minimally invasive medical devices and methods to cut sutures during procedures, particularly for repairing heart valves like the mitral valve, to address issues such as mitral regurgitation without requiring open-heart surgery or lifelong anticoagulant treatment.
Innovation Solution
A medical device with an elongate shaft, handle housing, and a cutting blade, featuring an actuation mechanism with a lever arm and gear system to axially translate the cutting blade, allowing for precise suture cutting during minimally invasive procedures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If open-heart surgery is used to repair heart valves, then complete repair capability is achieved, but patient trauma and recovery time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the heart valve repair procedure into separate functional modules: a delivery system for implanting the artificial chordae tendineae, and a separate cutting device for trimming excess suture material. This segmentation allows minimally invasive delivery while maintaining complete repair capability, avoiding the need for open-heart surgery.
Solution Approach 2:
The cutting device acts as an intermediary tool that enables precise suture cutting through the catheter access pathway. This intermediary mechanism allows the operator to trim excess suture material without removing the delivery system or performing open surgery, thereby reducing patient trauma while maintaining repair completeness.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a cutting device is integrated into the delivery system, then suture trimming capability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting device is merged with the delivery system by integrating the cutting blade within the catheter assembly. The blade can be advanced through the catheter to cut sutures at the implant site, combining two functions (delivery and cutting) into a single integrated device, thereby improving versatility without proportionally increasing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The cutting blade is designed with dynamic positioning capability, allowing it to be advanced or retracted relative to the catheter tip. This dynamic configuration enables the blade to engage or disengage from the suture material as needed, providing cutting capability when required while maintaining a simple delivery configuration during implantation, thus balancing versatility and complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A medical device for cutting a suture during a minimally invasive procedure includes an elongate shaft, a handle housing disposed at the proximal end of the elongate shaft, and a cutting blade disposed proximate the distal end of the elongate shaft. A proximal portion of the handle housing includes an actuation mechanism including a lever arm having a first portion disposed outside of the handle housing and extending distally from the proximal portion of the handle housing. Translation of the first portion of the lever arm relative to the handle housing axially translates the cutting blade within the elongate shaft. A medical device system may include a stand configured to support at least one medical device and a medical device securable to the stand.