Surgical Retractor Noncompliant Outer Ring Rolling Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing surgical tissue retractors face challenges in effectively enlarging and reshaping surgical incisions or body openings while ensuring a secure and atraumatic retraction, particularly in maintaining the incision's shape and preventing unraveling of the retraction mechanism.
Innovation Solution
A surgical retractor design featuring a flexible, impermeable sleeve coupled with a noncompliant outer ring that rolls around its axis to retract and seal the opening, utilizing a rigid inner wire to maintain the outer ring's shape and prevent unraveling, along with a cross-sectional shape that prevents incorrect coupling of components, ensuring secure and controlled retraction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If a flexible retention member is tensioned against the body wall to retract the incision, then the incision is enlarged and reshaped, but the retraction mechanism may unravel or lose its shape
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible retention member in the form of a thin film or membrane that can be tensioned to retract the incision. This flexible shell maintains the incision shape while being sufficiently compliant to conform to the body wall contours and resist unraveling through its continuous membrane structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The retention member utilizes composite material construction combining flexible polymer layers with reinforcing elements or coatings that provide tensile strength and shape memory properties, enabling the structure to maintain its configured shape under tension without unraveling.
2Shape
If the sleeve is wound around an external structure to tension the retention member, then the incision is reshaped to a round condition, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of winding the sleeve around an external rigid structure, the patent inverts the approach by having the retention member integrated directly with the retractor body, where the retractor's own structure provides the winding surface, eliminating the need for separate external tensioning structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the retention member and retractor structure into a single integrated assembly, where the retention member is permanently coupled to the retractor body, combining the functions of retraction and shaping into one unified device rather than separate components.
3Ease of operation
If the outer ring is made compliant to allow rolling motion, then the retraction is more flexible, but the outer ring cannot maintain its shape after insertion
Solution Approach 1:
The outer ring is segmented into multiple sections or struts that can articulate relative to each other, allowing the ring to flex and roll during insertion while maintaining its overall circular shape when deployed, as each segment contributes to the collective structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The outer ring employs dynamic structural properties where it transitions from a flexible state during insertion (allowing rolling motion) to a rigid state during operation (maintaining shape), achieved through material selection or structural design that provides shape memory or phase-change characteristics.
Data Source
AI summary
A surgical access device has a surgical retractor having a noncompliant outer ring with an annular axis, an inner ring, and a sleeve coupling the outer ring to the inner ring. The noncompliant outer ring is adapted to roll over itself around the annular axis to roll the sleeve around the outer ring to retract and seal an opening in a biological body wall. The access device may include a lid adapted for being coupled to the noncompliant outer ring of the surgical retractor. The outer ring of the surgical retractor has a cross-sectional shape that prohibits the lid from being partially or incorrectly coupled to the outer ring of the surgical retractor.