Sterile Lock Mechanism for Robot-Assisted Surgery Coupling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current robot-assisted surgery systems face challenges in achieving a reliable and cost-effective sterile coupling of non-sterile manipulator arms with sterile surgical instruments, particularly in ensuring mechanical, electrical, and optical transmission while preventing contamination and maintaining sterility, which requires complex and costly designs for sterilization validation.
Innovation Solution
The system employs translatory and rotatory drive elements with a sterile lock that shields the drive elements independently, allowing for easy and safe coupling and decoupling of sterile and non-sterile units, using a sterile cover and lock mechanism to prevent contamination and simplify the sterilization process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a sterile adaptor with rotatably mounted transmitting means is used to couple non-sterile manipulator arms with sterile surgical instruments, then contamination prevention is improved, but production cost and complexity increase due to the need to guarantee rotatability in contact with body fluids
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into three distinct segments: non-sterile manipulator arm, sterile cover with sterile lock, and sterile surgical instrument. The sterile lock acts as an intermediary coupling mechanism that segments the sterile and non-sterile zones, allowing independent design and simplifying the coupling interface.
Solution Approach 2:
The sterile lock serves as an intermediary component between the non-sterile manipulator arm and the sterile surgical instrument. It provides a simplified coupling interface that transmits mechanical forces while maintaining the sterile barrier, eliminating the need for complex rotatable transmitting means within the sterile zone.
2Duration of action of stationary object
If devices are designed as autoclavable components that can be sterilized multiple times, then reusability is improved, but development effort and validation effort increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The sterile cover and sterile lock are designed as disposable single-use components that are sterilized before use and discarded after the surgical procedure. This eliminates the need for complex validation of repeated sterilization cycles, as the disposable nature ensures they are not reused.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments reusable components (manipulator arm, surgical instrument) from disposable components (sterile cover, sterile lock). This allows the reusable components to be designed with standard sterilization processes while the disposable components handle the sterility barrier, reducing validation requirements for the reusable parts.
3Reliability
If a sterile cover with sterile lock is used to shield manipulator arms, then contamination prevention is improved, but ease of operation decreases due to complex coupling and decoupling procedures
Solution Approach 1:
The sterile lock is designed with self-aligning and self-latching features that automatically engage when the sterile cover is placed over the manipulator arm. The coupling mechanism requires minimal manual intervention, with the sterile lock automatically securing the sterile barrier in place.
Data Source
AI summary
A device for robot-assisted surgery, comprising at least one non-sterile manipulator arm (12) having a coupling unit (100) with drive elements. The device further has an instrument unit (300) which comprises a surgical instrument (500) and a sterile sterile unit (400) for coupling the surgical instrument (500) to the drive elements of the coupling unit (100). The coupling unit (100) comprises a translatory drive element (110, 112) for generating a translatory drive movement and a rotatory drive element (114, 116) for generating a rotatory drive movement. The sterile unit (400) has a translationally driven element (408, 410) couplable to the translatory drive element (110, 112) and a rotationally driven element (412, 414) couplable to the rotatory drive element (114, 116). The device has a sterile lock (200) which is capable of being coupled to the coupling unit (100) and to the sterile unit (400).