Sterile Adapter Alignment for Teleoperated Surgical Instruments
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Solution Overview
Problem
Teleoperated surgical systems face challenges in maintaining a sterile environment due to the need for complex and non-sterilizable components like motors and sensors, and the difficulty in quickly and reliably attaching and detaching surgical instruments while preventing contamination.
Innovation Solution
An instrument sterile adapter (ISA) is introduced, featuring a control surface with a shaft receiving slot and convex curved surface to securely couple surgical instruments to teleoperated actuators, ensuring a sterile interface and facilitating quick instrument exchange by using a disposable sterile drape and latch mechanisms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If teleoperated actuators with motors, sensors, and encoders are used to control surgical instruments, then control precision and automation are improved, but the ability to maintain sterile conditions deteriorates because these components cannot be sterilized using conventional methods
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into two distinct segments: a sterile disposable surgical instrument that can be sterilized and a non-sterile reusable teleoperated actuator containing motors, sensors, and encoders. The sterile adapter acts as an interface between these segments, allowing the sterile instrument to be detached and replaced while the actuator remains outside the sterile field. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by enabling automation in the non-sterile portion while maintaining sterility in the surgical portion.
Solution Approach 2:
A sterile adapter serves as an intermediary component between the teleoperated actuator and the surgical instrument. This adapter can be sterilized and disposed of, while the expensive actuator with sensitive electronics remains protected from sterilization processes. The intermediary allows force transmission and signal communication while maintaining the sterile barrier, thus resolving the contradiction between automation and sterility maintenance.
2Reliability
If multiple connections are made between surgical instrument and teleoperated actuator to transmit forces, electrical signals, and data, then control reliability is improved, but device complexity and ease of operation worsen due to the complex attachment process
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple separate connections for force transmission, electrical signals, and data are merged into a single integrated sterile adapter interface. The adapter simultaneously establishes all necessary connections when the surgical instrument is attached to the teleoperated actuator, eliminating the need for separate manual connections. This merging maintains control reliability through comprehensive connections while reducing attachment complexity to a single unified operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The sterile adapter is designed as a universal interface that handles multiple functions simultaneously: mechanical force transmission through drive shafts, electrical signal transmission through contacts, and data communication. This multi-functional design allows a single attachment action to establish all necessary connections, resolving the contradiction between reliable multi-connection control and simplified operation.
3Adaptability or versatility
If surgical instruments are detachably coupled to teleoperated actuators for separate sterilization and selection, then adaptability is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to time required for instrument changes
Solution Approach 1:
The sterile adapter is pre-configured with alignment features, engagement surfaces, and connection interfaces that are prepared in advance. When a surgical instrument needs to be changed, the pre-prepared adapter allows for rapid attachment without requiring complex alignment or multiple adjustment steps. This preliminary preparation of the interface maintains adaptability for instrument selection while significantly reducing instrument change time to preserve productivity.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If conventional sterilization methods are used on teleoperated actuators, then sterility is improved, but the actuator components are damaged or destroyed
Solution Approach 1:
The sensitive actuator components (motors, sensors, encoders) are extracted from the sterile field and placed in a separate non-sterile portion of the system. The sterile adapter creates a clear boundary that extracts these components from the sterilization process entirely. This extraction allows conventional sterilization methods to be applied to the surgical instrument and adapter without exposing the actuator components to damaging heat, pressure, or chemicals, thus preserving component integrity while maintaining sterility where needed.
Data Source
AI summary
An instrument sterile adapter for coupling a surgical instrument and an instrument carriage includes an adapter control surface that extends control features of a control surface of the instrument carriage and receives an instrument control surface of the surgical instrument. A shaft receiving slot is positioned in the adapter control surface to receive an elongate tube of the surgical instrument when the adapter control surface receives the instrument control surface of the surgical instrument. The elongate tube may couple a proximal control mechanism of the surgical instrument to an end effector. The instrument sterile adapter may include a convex curved surface substantially perpendicular to and facing the adapter control surface to receive a corresponding concave curved surface on the instrument control surface. A bullet portion on the convex curved surface may engage a bullet receiving feature in the corresponding concave curved surface on the instrument control surface.