Surgical Instrument Propulsion Detection for Bone Drilling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical instruments, such as drilling devices, face challenges in accurately monitoring the depth of drill holes in bone tissue due to obscured visibility from soft tissue and blood, requiring frequent interruptions to check progress, making them difficult to handle and increasing patient burden.
Innovation Solution
A surgical instrument equipped with a propulsion determination device that includes a transmission unit, reception unit, and evaluation unit, allowing continuous monitoring of instrument advancement relative to the body tissue through signal transmission and reflection, enabling real-time depth determination without interrupting the process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the surgeon frequently interrupts the machining process to check borehole depth, then measurement precision is improved, but productivity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where a sensor continuously monitors the borehole depth and provides real-time information to the surgeon through a display unit. This allows the surgeon to monitor depth without interrupting the drilling process, maintaining both measurement precision and productivity. The feedback loop includes: sensor detection of drill position, signal processing, and visual feedback display showing current depth relative to target depth.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical/visual inspection method (surgeon physically measuring or visually checking depth) with an electronic sensing and display system. The sensor-based electronic measurement system substitutes for manual depth checking, enabling continuous monitoring without process interruption and providing more precise measurements than manual methods.
2Device complexity
If the transmitting unit and receiving unit are arranged on the housing or in the housing, then device complexity is reduced, but measurement precision may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the housing serve multiple functions: it provides structural support, contains the transmitting and receiving units, and acts as part of the signal transmission path. By integrating these components into the existing housing structure rather than adding separate dedicated housings for each component, the patent reduces overall device complexity while maintaining measurement precision through proper signal path design.
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 enhances user-friendliness and reduces patient burden by allowing continuous operation, providing accurate depth monitoring and a compact design that maintains a clear operating field, reducing processing time and improving handling.
Implementation Method 1
the at least one signal can be transmitted by the transmitter unit in the distal direction to the body tissue to be treated and if the reflected signal running in the proximal direction is transmitted by the receiver unit is detectable
Data Source
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Figure 3
AI summary
The invention relates to a surgical instrument comprising a housing and a drive unit arranged therein, wherein a surgical tool for acting on body tissue to be treated, in particular bone, can be fixed or is fixed distally on the housing, which tool can be driven by the drive unit in a rotary or oscillating manner, and wherein, when the tool is driven, a propulsion of the instrument relative to the body tissue can be achieved.In order to provide such an instrument with better handling, it is proposed according to the invention that the instrument comprises a propulsion detection device with which the propulsion of the instrument relative to the body tissue can be determined during operation of the instrument, comprising a transmitter unit for sending at least one signal, a receiver unit for capturing the at least one signal and an evaluation unit for determining the propulsion on the basis of the at least one signal, and that at least the transmitter unit or the receiver unit is arranged on or in the housing.