Perforated Ossicular Prosthesis Bight for Reduced Crimping Force
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing passive ossicular prostheses with bight-shaped coupling elements face challenges in crimping due to mechanical memory spring effects and intrinsic stiffness, leading to potential inner ear damage and incomplete sound transmission in patients with otosclerosis or damaged ossicles.
Innovation Solution
The ossicular prosthesis features a bight made of strip-shaped metallic material with elongated perforations extending along a curved trajectory, reducing spring action and crimping force by approximately 50%, allowing for a more secure and gentle attachment to the incus or manubrium without sharp bending, and enabling easier removal if needed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the bight is made of strip-shaped metallic material without perforations, then it provides sufficient strength for crimping, but it exhibits strong mechanical memory spring effects and high intrinsic stiffness that can cause inner ear damage
Solution Approach 1:
The bight is provided with multiple elongated perforations extending through its thickness, transforming it from a solid metallic strip to a porous structure. This reduces the mechanical memory spring effects and intrinsic stiffness while maintaining sufficient crimping strength, thereby preventing inner ear damage during the crimping process
Solution Approach 2:
The solid metallic strip is segmented by introducing multiple perforations that divide the material into thinner sections. This segmentation reduces the overall stiffness and spring action of the bight while preserving its structural integrity and crimping capability
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the bight is made of round wire material, then it reduces spring action, but it requires considerably different and more complex crimping procedures
Solution Approach 1:
The bight maintains its strip-shaped cross-section (rather than changing to round wire) but modifies the parameters by introducing perforations. This reduces spring action while preserving the simple crimping procedure applicable to strip-shaped materials, avoiding the need for complex alternative crimping methods
3Reliability
If the bight is made with strong metallic material, then it ensures durable attachment, but it increases crimping force requirements that may damage the incus or manubrium
Solution Approach 1:
The perforated structure reduces the effective stiffness and spring action of the metallic material, allowing the bight to be crimped with lower forces that will not damage the incus or manubrium, while the metallic material itself ensures durable attachment through its inherent strength and biocompatibility
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 design reduces the risk of trauma during crimping, enhances acoustic signal transmission, and facilitates easier revision surgeries by minimizing mechanical memory effects and intrinsic stiffness, ensuring reliable coupling and improved sound conduction.
Implementation Method 1
reducing spring action and crimping force by approximately 50%
Implementation Method 2
an elongated, sound-conducting prosthesis body
Data Source
AI summary
A passive ossicular prosthesis has a sound-conducting prosthesis body with a first coupling element for mechanical connection to the incus, malleus, or an actuator end piece of an active hearing aid at one end. The bight is made of a strip-shaped metallic material, partially open toward the outside via a gap-type opening and is intraoperatively crimped in the middle ear for permanent attachment. There is a second coupling element at the other end of the prosthesis body for connection to a further component of the ossicular chain or directly to the inner ear. The bight includes elongated perforations with longitudinal axes extending, in the implanted state, along a curved trajectory at a right angle or slant relative to an axis parallel to the longitudinal axis (a) of the enclosed object to reduce spring action and stiffness and markedly reduce the force to be applied for the crimping.