Surgical Stapler Resilient Anvil Variable Tissue Thickness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical staplers face challenges in efficiently stapling and cutting tissue with varying thickness, often resulting in inconsistent compression and potential tissue damage due to the need for precise alignment and force adjustment.
Innovation Solution
The surgical stapler incorporates a design with a buttress assembly and fasteners featuring barbs or compressible staple drivers that adjust to tissue thickness, ensuring consistent compression and secure sealing without requiring traditional staple formation, and a cartridge with pressure-loaded sections that adjust staple height based on tissue thickness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional surgical staplers are used on tissue with varying thickness, then the stapling process becomes complex and time-consuming, but the compression consistency deteriorates leading to potential tissue damage
Solution Approach 1:
The anvil is designed with resilient or flexible characteristics that allow it to dynamically adapt to varying tissue thicknesses. This dynamic anvil can deform or flex to accommodate different tissue profiles, maintaining consistent compression forces without requiring precise pre-alignment. The resilient anvil essentially absorbs the variability in tissue thickness through its own elastic deformation.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical parameters of the anvil from rigid to resilient/flexible. This parameter change allows the anvil to automatically adjust its deformation characteristics based on tissue thickness, thereby maintaining consistent compression forces across variable tissue profiles without requiring complex alignment mechanisms.
2Productivity
If traditional staplers are used on variable thickness tissue, then multiple adjustments are needed, but the stapling time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The resilient anvil performs self-adjustment based on the tissue thickness it encounters. As tissue is placed between the anvil and stapler jaw, the anvil automatically deforms to the appropriate degree, providing self-service adaptation without requiring external adjustment mechanisms or operator intervention. This self-adjusting capability maintains sealing reliability while enabling continuous stapling operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The resilient anvil provides mechanical feedback through its deformation response to tissue thickness. The amount of anvil deformation naturally corresponds to the tissue thickness, creating an inherent feedback mechanism that ensures appropriate compression forces are applied automatically, maintaining sealing reliability without requiring active control systems.
3Ease of operation
If precise alignment is required for variable thickness tissue, then the operation becomes difficult, but the compression force becomes inconsistent
Solution Approach 1:
The resilient anvil transforms the static alignment requirement into a dynamic adaptation process. Instead of requiring the operator to achieve precise alignment before stapling, the dynamic anvil continuously adapts its shape and position during the stapling process to match the tissue profile, maintaining consistent compression forces throughout.
Solution Approach 2:
By changing the anvil from rigid to resilient, the invention alters the force distribution parameters automatically. The resilient material properties allow the anvil to redistribute compression forces in real-time based on tissue thickness variations, ensuring force consistency without requiring operator skill for precise alignment.
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 allows for reliable stapling and cutting of tissues with varying thickness, preventing tissue damage by maintaining consistent compression and secure sealing, even with irregular tissue profiles.
Implementation Method 1
compressible staple drivers that adjust to tissue thickness, ensuring consistent compression
Implementation Method 2
fasteners featuring barbs or compressible staple drivers that adjust to tissue thickness
Data Source
AI summary
A surgical instrument includes a first and second jaw actuatable between an open and closed position, a buttress assembly having a compressible material, and a fastener assembly associated with the second jaw. The fastener assembly and the buttress assembly may cooperatively grasp tissue while the first and second jaws are in the closed position. The fastener assembly includes a deck defining a plurality of openings and a plurality of fasteners each housed within a respective opening of the plurality of openings. Each fastener can actuate out of the respective opening and into the buttress assembly. Each fastener includes a first leg having a piercing tip, and an attachment feature associated with the first leg. The attachment feature can engage the buttress assembly to couple the first leg with the buttress assembly without bending a portion of the first leg associated with the piercing tip.