Rotatable Needle Suture Device for Laparoscopic Mesh Fastening
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional laparoscopic tackers face challenges in positioning and securing prosthetic mesh due to their rigid nature and limited access, often causing irritation and complications for patients, while providing suboptimal tensile strength for tissue fastening during minimally invasive procedures.
Innovation Solution
A suturing device with a firing aperture and rotatable needles, coupled with a drive mechanism and stripper plate, allows for precise deployment and retraction of sutures, facilitating effective tissue and prosthetic mesh fastening with reduced irritation and improved holding strength.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional laparoscopic tackers are used for fastening tissue and prosthetic mesh, then the procedure can be performed minimally invasively, but the device causes patient irritation, pain, and complications due to metal tacks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter of the fastening element from non-absorbable metal tacks to absorbable tacks that dissolve over time. This parameter change eliminates the long-term irritation and complications caused by permanent metal foreign bodies while maintaining the minimally invasive surgical approach.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs disposable absorbable tacks that perform their fastening function temporarily and then dissolve naturally in the body. These short-living fastening elements eliminate the need for permanent metal tacks, reducing patient complications while maintaining procedural effectiveness.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If absorbable tacks are used instead of metal tacks, then patient irritation is reduced, but tissue holding strength becomes suboptimal
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple fastening elements (multiple tacks) within a single deployable cartridge system, allowing simultaneous deployment of multiple absorbable tacks to achieve cumulative holding strength that compensates for the individually weaker absorbable material properties.
3Strength
If suturing is performed via laparoscopic procedures, then tissue fastening effectiveness is improved, but the procedure complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the complex manual suturing mechanical system with an automated tacker deployment system. The simplified mechanism deploys pre-formed tacks through a cartridge system, eliminating the need for manual needle manipulation and knot tying while achieving effective tissue fastening.
Solution Approach 2:
The tacks are pre-formed and pre-loaded into the cartridge before the procedure. This preliminary preparation eliminates the need for complex intra-procedural suturing maneuvers, reducing procedural complexity while maintaining fastening effectiveness.
4Adaptability or versatility
If the laparoscopic tacker is positioned at various angles to access hernia defects, then access flexibility is improved, but positioning precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a dynamic cartridge deployment mechanism that can adapt to various access angles while maintaining precise tacker positioning. The flexible delivery system allows the tacker to be positioned accurately regardless of the approach angle, combining access flexibility with positioning precision.
Data Source
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AI summary
A suturing device is provided. The suturing device may include a firing aperture having at least one needle and a stripper plate, the needle being rotatable relative to the stripper plate and the firing aperture, and configured to engage a suture for deployment; and a drive mechanism operatively coupled to the needle and configured to advance the needle from a retracted position to an extended position during engagement, and retract the needle from the extended position to the retracted position during disengagement.