Removable Sheath for Jointed Medical Instruments

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Solution Overview

Problem

Minimally invasive medical instruments with complex mechanical designs face challenges in cost reduction and efficient cleaning due to numerous small components and tight spaces, making reuse difficult and costly.

Innovation Solution

A removable sheath with flexible, porous, or convoluted materials that accommodate bending joints, provide electrical isolation, and contain lubricants or disinfectants to facilitate cleaning and reduce interference with instrument movement.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If a removable sheath with flexible material is used to cover the joint, then the sheath can accommodate bending of the joint, but the tubular section may collapse when the joint bends

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveaccommodation of joint bendingVSAvoidstructural integrity during bending

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSStrength

Solution Approach 1:

The patent employs a flexible tubular sheath made of elastomeric material that can bend and conform to the joint's movement while maintaining structural integrity. The flexible shell design allows the sheath to accommodate joint bending without collapsing, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and strength.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #30Flexible shells and thin films

Solution Approach 2:

The sheath utilizes composite material construction combining elastomeric flexible material with reinforcing elements or specific structural designs that prevent collapse during bending. This composite approach enables the sheath to simultaneously achieve flexibility for joint accommodation and structural strength to prevent collapse.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #40Composite materials

2Adaptability or versatility

If the instrument is designed with many separate components for functionality, then the instrument can perform complex medical procedures, but cleaning and sterilization becomes more difficult

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvefunctional capabilityVSAvoidcleaning and sterilization efficiency

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSEase of repair

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the cleaning and protection functions into a separate removable sheath that can be easily removed, cleaned, and sterilized independently from the main instrument. This separation allows the complex instrument components to remain protected while the sheath handles the cleaning burden, resolving the contradiction between functional capability and cleaning efficiency.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The sheath is designed as a segmented, modular component that can be easily separated from the instrument. This segmentation allows independent cleaning and sterilization of the sheath without disassembling the complex instrument components, making maintenance easier while preserving full functional capability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

3Strength

If a rigid sheath is used to prevent collapse, then structural integrity is maintained, but the sheath interferes with joint movement

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvestructural integrityVSAvoidjoint movement freedom

Core Design Contradiction:

StrengthVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent uses a flexible elastomeric sheath that maintains structural integrity through its material properties rather than rigidity. The flexible shell can bend and deform to accommodate joint movement while preventing collapse through elastic recovery, resolving the contradiction between structural integrity and movement freedom.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #30Flexible shells and thin films

Solution Approach 2:

The sheath is designed with dynamic properties that allow it to adapt its stiffness in response to applied forces. During joint movement, the sheath flexes to accommodate motion, while during normal operation it maintains sufficient structural integrity to prevent collapse, achieving both goals through dynamic material behavior.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

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 sheath reduces biomaterial infiltration, maintains pressure, and prevents mechanical interference, enhancing the efficiency of cleaning and reuse while minimizing strain on the sheath during bending, thus reducing operational costs and improving instrument maintenance.

Implementation Method 1

The section of porous material is positioned to surround a joint of the medical instrument and provide a barrier to infiltration of liquids into the instrument

Methodology Applied

Scientific EffectPorosity: Porosity

Implementation Method 2

the section surrounding the joint has convolutions that accommodate bending of the joint

Methodology Applied

Scientific EffectCorrugation: Corrugation

Data Source

PatentUS10376331B2Sheaths for jointed instruments

Publication Date: 2019.08.13 INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS INC

AI summary

Sheaths for medical instruments cover wrist mechanisms to provide a barrier to infiltration of biological material into the instrument, electrical isolation of energized portions of the instrument, seal the instrument to help maintain cavity pressure within a patient, or reduce the chance that two jointed instruments will tangle during a medical procedure.