Steerable Needle with Keel and Wire Actuation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current needle technologies lack sufficient control and steerability, particularly when navigating through thick layers of fat and muscle or around obstructions like nerve bundles and arteries, making it difficult to accurately reach target injection sites in the body.
Innovation Solution
A steerable needle system with a bendable shaft and a keel or rudder segment, actuated by a wire or resilient ribbon, allowing for precise control of the needle tip angle to guide the needle around impediments and reach target locations within the body.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a straight hypodermic needle is used, then the device is simple and easy to manufacture, but the needle cannot be steered around obstructions or through thick tissue layers to reach target injection sites
Solution Approach 1:
The needle shaft is divided into a rigid proximal portion and a flexible distal portion, allowing the needle to maintain structural integrity at the insertion point while enabling bending and steering at the tip to navigate around obstructions and reach target sites
Solution Approach 2:
The needle transitions from a static straight configuration to a dynamic bent configuration through the action of the stylet, allowing the needle to adapt its shape during insertion to steer around obstructions while maintaining simplicity of the overall device structure
2Adaptability or versatility
If the needle shaft is made flexible to allow bending, then the needle can be steered to reach difficult targets, but the needle loses stability and control during insertion
Solution Approach 1:
The needle is segmented into a rigid proximal shaft that provides stability and control during insertion, and a flexible distal shaft that enables bending and steering, allowing both stability and adaptability to coexist in different portions of the same device
Solution Approach 2:
The stylet acts as an intermediary element that transmits bending forces from the operator to the flexible portion of the needle, providing controlled flexibility while maintaining overall needle stability during the insertion process
3Adaptability or versatility
If a pre-bent needle is used to navigate around obstructions, then the needle can reach difficult targets, but the needle cannot be adjusted or repositioned once inserted
Solution Approach 1:
The needle transitions from a static pre-bent configuration to a dynamically adjustable configuration through the stylet, allowing the operator to bend and reposition the needle tip during insertion to navigate around obstructions and reach target sites with precise control
Solution Approach 2:
The stylet enables the operator to self-adjust the needle configuration during the procedure, allowing real-time bending and repositioning of the needle tip without requiring device replacement or additional instruments
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
Enhances the ability to accurately steer the needle past obstructions, improving control and stability during injection procedures, enabling access to difficult-to-reach targets without causing complications.
Implementation Method 1
a bendable segment of the shaft, the bendable segment being adjacent the tip... when the portion of the wire extending out of the distal end of the needle is either pulled or pushed, in a direction generally parallel to the axis of the needle, the bendable segment of the needle is caused to bend
Data Source
AI summary
A system of needles having rudders or keels is provided having perforations, such as kerfs, to allow the needles to be bent by the manipulations of wires imbedded within the needle body. The pulling or pushing of the embedded wires, or stylets, causes the needle tip to be bent, while within the body, to allow the needle to be steered past impediments towards the target necessitating treatment. Wires can be pulled or pushed and in some instances both a push and pull wire are provided to give the needle precision steerability. The needles are provided with a keel or rudder, or can be shaped such as with a teardrop cross-section, to give a degree of stabilization to the course the needle, and attendant tubing, takes within the patient. The kerf cut section of the needle, which can be on one side, two sides or all about the circumference of the needle, allows the needle to be bent one way and then, as needed, another way to allow the needle to be steered within the body.