Neural Locating Method Using Electrical Stimulus Triangulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical techniques lack effective methods for accurately detecting and avoiding nerves during minimally invasive procedures, which can lead to nerve injury.
Innovation Solution
A neural monitoring system that uses a stimulator with electrodes to apply electrical stimuli and measure mechanically induced muscle responses, creating a 3D nerve model to determine nerve location and avoid nerve contact during surgery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional surgical techniques are used with smaller exposures and more complex medical devices, then surgical precision is improved, but the ability to detect and avoid nerves deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical visual inspection and manual probing with an electrical stimulation-based detection system. The stimulator delivers electrical impulses through electrodes to elicit muscle responses, substituting mechanical surgical techniques with electrical fields for nerve localization, thereby maintaining surgical precision while improving nerve detection capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary detection system consisting of the stimulator, electrodes, and response monitoring apparatus. This intermediary system acts as a mediator between the surgeon and the nerve structures, providing indirect but reliable information about nerve location through muscle response monitoring, thus resolving the contradiction between minimal exposure and effective nerve detection
2Object-affected harmful factors
If minimally invasive surgical procedures are performed, then patient trauma is reduced, but nerve detection and avoidance becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces extensive mechanical dissection and visual exposure with electrical stimulation and electronic monitoring. The stimulator and electrode system enables nerve detection through electrical fields and muscle response monitoring, allowing minimally invasive procedures to maintain reduced patient trauma while improving nerve location verification through non-mechanical detection methods
Solution Approach 2:
The system utilizes the body's own muscle tissue as a natural indicator of nerve location. By stimulating the nerve and observing the muscle response, the system makes the nerve's presence self-evident through the body's inherent physiological reactions, eliminating the need for extensive surgical exposure while maintaining effective nerve detection
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 system provides real-time nerve location detection and avoidance, enhancing surgical precision and safety by minimizing the risk of nerve injury.
Implementation Method 1
periodically applying a first electrical stimulus from a first electrode disposed on a central axis of the stimulator
Implementation Method 2
If a response of a muscle innervated by a nerve within the intracorporeal space to the first electrical stimulus is detected
Data Source
AI summary
A method of locating a nerve within an intracorporeal space includes advancing a distal end portion of a stimulator toward an anatomical target within the intracorporeal space, and periodically applying a first electrical stimulus from a first electrode disposed on a central axis of the stimulator. If a muscular response to the first electrical stimulus is detected, a locating electrical stimulus is then applied from a plurality of locations offset from the central axis of the stimulator, and a magnitude of the response of the muscle is monitored. A distance between the nerve and each of the plurality of locations is determined from the magnitude of the muscular response, and from a magnitude of the locating electrical stimulus provided at each of the plurality of locations. The location of the nerve is then triangulated from the determined distance at each of the plurality of locations.