Surgical Staple Configurations with Camming Surfaces
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical stapling instruments face challenges in efficiently deploying staples with consistent formation and alignment, leading to potential malformation and increased force requirements, which can result in inconsistent staple lines and tissue damage during procedures.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a staple cartridge with a sled or camming actuator that features ramped surfaces to drive staple drivers, ensuring staples are ejected perpendicular to the anvil surface, supported by guides to prevent skewing and maintain alignment, and a tissue cutting member that positions the anvil relative to the cartridge for precise staple deployment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional staple deployment mechanisms are used, then staples can be ejected from the cartridge, but staple formation consistency deteriorates and misalignment occurs
Solution Approach 1:
A camming surface is introduced as an intermediary element between the pusher bar and the staple drivers. This camming surface mediates the force transmission and geometric transformation, ensuring that the pusher bar's linear motion is converted into precise staple ejection motion. The camming surface acts as a mediator that synchronizes staple deployment across multiple rows, preventing misalignment and maintaining formation consistency.
Solution Approach 2:
The camming surface is pre-configured with specific geometric profiles before the stapling operation begins. This preliminary configuration ensures that when the pusher bar activates the staple drivers, the force is already directed at the correct angles and positions. The pre-designed camming geometry prevents staple misalignment by establishing proper ejection trajectories in advance, rather than attempting to correct alignment issues during the actual stapling process.
2Productivity
If higher force is applied to eject staples, then staple deployment speed increases, but tissue damage increases and staple misalignment occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The camming surface geometry is designed to transform the force parameters during staple ejection. Instead of applying high force directly, the camming surface converts a controlled input force into optimized ejection force vectors. The angular and positional parameters of the camming surface are specifically configured to achieve adequate staple deployment speed while distributing force evenly, preventing both tissue damage and staple misalignment.
3Device complexity
If simpler staple cartridge designs are used, then device complexity decreases, but staple alignment control deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The camming surface serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a force transmission element, a geometric transformation element, and a synchronization mechanism for multi-row staple deployment. By consolidating these functions into a single integrated component rather than using separate mechanisms for each function, the design achieves precise staple alignment without proportionally increasing overall cartridge complexity.
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 configuration ensures consistent staple formation, reduces the force needed for staple ejection, and minimizes tissue damage by maintaining staple alignment and preventing gaps between staples and tissue, thereby enhancing surgical precision and reducing bleeding or air leaks.
Implementation Method 1
the other jaw member can support an anvil with staple-forming pockets aligned with the rows of staples in the staple cartridge. Generally, the stapling instrument can further include a pusher bar and a knife blade which are slidable relative to the jaw members to sequentially eject the staples from the staple cartridge via camming surfaces on the pusher bar and/or camming surfaces on a wedge sled that is pushed by the pusher bar.
Data Source
AI summary
A stapling assembly comprising a cartridge body, a plurality of staples, a plurality of first staple drivers, and a second staple driver is disclosed. The cartridge body comprises a longitudinal slot defining a longitudinal slot axis and a plurality of staple cavities defined in the cartridge body. The plurality of staples comprises a first row of staples, a second row of staples, and a third row of staples. Each first staple driver of the plurality of first staple drivers comprises a first staple support, a second staple support, and a third staple support configured to eject a staple from the first, second, and third rows of staples, respectively. The second staple driver is configured to eject only two staples of the plurality of staples and comprises a fourth staple support and a fifth staple support, each configured to eject a staple of the only two staples.