Steerable Introducer Drill for Curved Spine Trajectories
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing treatments for chronic back pain, particularly those involving surgical interventions, are often costly, addictive, temporary, and ineffective, and fail to provide adequate relief for the majority of patients, especially when targeting hard bone areas within the spine.
Innovation Solution
A steerable or curveable introducer drill system that facilitates access to target treatment locations within the spine, particularly the basivertebral nerve, using a curved trajectory, allowing for minimally invasive procedures and integrated access and treatment capabilities, even in dense bone structures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a straight instrument is used to access target treatment locations within bone, then the instrument structure is simple, but the ability to access posterior portions of vertebral body in hard bone is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The introducer drill incorporates a curveable/steerable mechanism that allows the distal portion of the shaft to be dynamically positioned into different curved configurations. This enables the instrument to adapt its trajectory to access posterior portions of vertebral bodies in hard bone, resolving the contradiction between access capability and structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The introducer drill is divided into a proximal straight portion and a distal curveable portion that can be independently positioned. This segmentation allows the instrument to maintain structural simplicity in the proximal portion while providing curved trajectory capability in the distal portion to access difficult-to-reach bone regions.
2Ease of operation
If pre-curved instruments are used to access target locations, then access to curved trajectories is improved, but the ability to handle hard bone and provide precise control is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using pre-curved instruments with fixed curvature, the introducer drill employs a dynamic curveable mechanism that allows real-time adjustment of the distal shaft's curvature. This enables precise control over the trajectory to accurately reach target locations in hard bone while maintaining the ability to handle such dense bone structures.
3Loss of time
If minimally invasive procedures are performed to reduce recovery time, then patient recovery is improved, but the ability to access and treat hard bone areas is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The curveable introducer drill enables minimally invasive access to hard bone areas by allowing the instrument to navigate curved trajectories through softer bone and cancellous tissue to reach posterior vertebral body regions. This dynamic positioning capability maintains the minimally invasive advantage while successfully treating hard bone areas that were previously inaccessible.
Data Source
AI summary
A steerable, or curveable, introducer drill to access a target treatment region within bone along a curved trajectory is disclosed. The drill may include a drive shaft including a proximal rotational member, a distal drill tip, and an elongate shaft portion extending from the proximal rotational member to the distal drill tip. The distal drill tip may be sharp and include cutting flutes. The drill may also include an outer tube surrounding the drive shaft. A distal end portion of the outer tube may include a segmented tube section configured to facilitate controlled bending of the segmented tube section of the outer tube. The drill may also include an actuator operably coupled to the drive shaft and adapted to apply tension to the drive shaft which, in turn, causes the segmented tube section of the outer tube to bend.