Deflectable Jaw Retention in Surgical Clip Appliers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical clip appliers face challenges in retaining clips within the jaws prior to and during clip formation, leading to potential misalignment and malformation or ejection, which can compromise surgical procedures.
Innovation Solution
The surgical clip applier incorporates deflectable clip retention members on the jaws' inward facing surfaces, applying a biasing force to the clip legs to maintain alignment and secure retention, with configurations such as leaf springs or compressible members that adjust to accommodate manufacturing variances and ensure proper clip positioning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the jaws are released to return to the open configuration after clip advancement, then the jaws can be repositioned for the next clip, but the clip may become misaligned, leading to malformation or ejection
Solution Approach 1:
The deflectable retention members are pre-positioned within the clip guide channels to contact and hold the clip legs in the correct position before jaw closure. This preliminary retention action ensures clip alignment is maintained throughout the jaw movement cycle, preventing misalignment during jaw release and repositioning for the next clip application.
Solution Approach 2:
The retention members are designed to be deflectable rather than fixed, allowing them to dynamically adjust their position as jaws move between open and closed states. This dynamic characteristic enables the retention members to maintain continuous contact with clip legs while accommodating jaw movement, ensuring reliable clip retention throughout the operational cycle.
2Reliability
If deflectable clip retention members are added to the jaws, then clip retention and alignment are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The retention members are implemented as thin, deflectable elements (such as spring fingers or flexible tabs) that can be integrated into the jaw structure. These flexible components provide the necessary retention function while maintaining a compact design, adding minimal complexity to the overall jaw assembly compared to rigid mechanical retention systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The retention members utilize elastic deformation as their operating principle, changing their physical state from rigid to flexible during operation. This parameter change allows simple elastic materials to provide complex retention functions, reducing the need for additional mechanical components and simplifying the overall device structure.
3Ease of operation
If the clip is pre-loaded in the jaws, then the clip is ready for immediate application, but any jaw movement may cause the clip to become misaligned
Solution Approach 1:
The deflectable retention members are pre-positioned within the clip guide channels to contact and hold the clip legs in the correct position before jaw closure. This preliminary retention action ensures clip alignment is maintained throughout the jaw movement cycle, preventing misalignment during jaw release and repositioning for the next clip application.
Solution Approach 2:
The retention members automatically adjust their position based on clip placement, providing self-aligning retention without requiring precise manual positioning. The elastic deflection of the retention members creates a self-correcting mechanism that maintains clip alignment even with variations in clip placement or jaw movement, reducing the need for high-precision manufacturing tolerances.
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
The solution effectively retains clips within the jaws, preventing malformation and ejection, thereby ensuring reliable clip application during surgical procedures.
Implementation Method 1
The at least one deflectable clip retention member can be elastically deformable. For example, the at least one deflectable clip retention member can be or can include a leaf spring.
Data Source
AI summary
A surgical clip applier is provided that includes first and second jaws on a distal end of an elongate shaft, a clip advancing assembly extending through the shaft and configured to advance a distal-most clip from a plurality of clips in the shaft into the first and second jaws. The jaws have opposed inward facing surfaces, and each inward facing surface has a clip track defined therein for receiving and guiding legs of a clip into the first and second jaws. The clip track of at least one of the jaws has at least one deflectable clip retention member disposed therein and configured to apply a biasing force to a leg of a clip disposed within the jaws to thereby retain the clip within the jaws and maintain alignment of the clip with respect to the jaws. The clip track of at least one of the jaws may also have at least one recess or protrusion designed to be complementary to and mate with a protrusion or recess in a clip.