Overtube With Internal Puncture Needles For Natural Orifice Surgery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical procedures through natural orifices face challenges in easily incising tissue due to the limitations of existing instruments and methods, which hinder efficient access and visualization during minimally invasive surgeries.
Innovation Solution
An overtube with a distal end portion and a proximal end portion, featuring a first lumen for device insertion, puncture needles with a control member, and second lumens for needle passage, allowing for controlled tissue puncture and incision while enabling the use of an observation apparatus for guidance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If puncture needles are used to incise tissue during natural orifice procedures, then tissue incision capability is improved, but control precision and visualization of the puncture process deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism - the control member with proximal and distal portions that mediates between the operator and the puncture needle. The proximal portion allows external control while the distal portion remains within the lumen, providing both control capability and visualization. This intermediary structure resolves the contradiction by enabling precise control and observation without compromising the puncture function.
Solution Approach 2:
The puncture needle is nested within the lumen of the insertion portion, with the control member also nested within the lumen. This nested configuration allows the puncture needle to be guided and controlled through the lumen while maintaining visualization capability. The nesting arrangement enables the system to achieve both tissue incision capability and control precision by having the control mechanism contained within the observational pathway.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple lumens are provided in the insertion portion for device passage and needle control, then functional versatility is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The first lumen serves multiple functions: it allows passage of observation apparatus, enables visualization of the puncture process, and provides a pathway for the control member. This multi-functional design achieves functional versatility without proportionally increasing complexity, as a single lumen structure accomplishes what would otherwise require multiple separate systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the observation pathway and the control mechanism pathway into a unified lumen structure. By combining these functions within the same lumen, the device achieves versatility (observation + control + device passage) while minimizing the increase in overall structural complexity compared to having separate independent systems for each function.
Data Source
AI summary
An overtube includes an insertion portion that has a distal end portion and a proximal end portion, and at least the distal end portion thereof is inserted into a subject; a first lumen that is formed in the insertion portion and that allows freely inserting and removing a device for carrying out medical procedures in the subject; puncture needles that pass through the insertion portion, have a control member connected to the proximal end portion of the insertion portion, and puncture tissue; and second lumens that are provided in the insertion portion and through which puncture needles are passed, the second lumens having on the distal end portion of the insertion portion openings through which distal ends of the puncture needles extend and retract, and the openings being provided on an inside of the insertion portion defined by the first lumen.