Surgical Retractor Assembly with Adjustable Arms
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional surgical procedures often cause significant trauma to tissues due to extensive incisions, muscle stripping, and prolonged retraction, leading to prolonged recovery times and severe scarring, highlighting a need for improved tissue retraction methods in minimally invasive surgeries.
Innovation Solution
A retractor assembly comprising a pair of arm members with rotatable engagement portions and locking elements that allow controlled movement along an elongate support member, enabling minimally invasive access to surgical sites while minimizing tissue trauma by adjusting the size of the working channel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional surgical procedures are used to access deep surgical sites, then adequate access to the surgical site is achieved, but significant tissue trauma occurs leading to prolonged recovery time
Solution Approach 1:
The retractor assembly employs a telescopic design where arm members can be nested within each other along the elongate support member, allowing the device to be inserted through a small incision in a compact state and then extended to provide adequate working channel size for deep surgical access without requiring large initial incisions
2Ease of operation
If large incisions and extensive muscle stripping are performed to access deep sites, then surgical access is improved, but tissue trauma and scarring increase
Solution Approach 1:
The retractor assembly features dynamically adjustable arm members that can be positioned at various locations along the elongate support member and adjusted between retracted and extended positions, allowing the working channel size to be optimized for the specific surgical needs while minimizing the initial incision size and associated tissue trauma
3Device complexity
If fixed-size retractors are used, then device simplicity is maintained, but adaptability to different surgical needs is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The arm members are designed with locking mechanisms that allow them to be positioned at multiple discrete locations along the elongate support member, providing adaptability for different surgical requirements while maintaining a relatively simple mechanical structure based on basic engagement and locking features
Solution Approach 2:
The retractor assembly is divided into modular components including the elongate support member, multiple arm members, and engagement portions, allowing each component to be independently adjusted and positioned to achieve the desired working channel configuration for different surgical scenarios
Data Source
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AI summary
An assembly for tissue retraction in surgery includes a pair of arm members removably positioned on and movable along an elongate support member. The arm members each include an external housing, a locking member. The elongate support member extends through the passageways and the locking members are releasably biased into engagement with the elongate support member to allow the arm members to move in opposite directions along the elongate support member and prevent the arm members from moving toward one another. Each arm member further includes a rotatable engagement with the engagement portion to limit rotation of the engagement portion to a first direction relative to the arm member.