Surgical Stapling Anvil with Nested Pockets for Flexible Tissue Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical stapling instruments face challenges in ensuring consistent staple placement and tissue cutting, with issues such as missing staples in the staple line and limited flexibility in staple lines, which can affect the surgical outcome.
Innovation Solution
The design of a surgical stapling system with a staple cartridge featuring angularly-oriented staple cavities and patterns, including a herringbone arrangement, to enhance staple line flexibility and sealing properties, combined with a cutting element that adjusts tissue gap and incises tissue during stapling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional staple cavity arrangements are used, then the device structure is simple, but the staple line flexibility is limited and missing staples occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies asymmetry by arranging staple cavities in angular orientations rather than conventional parallel or grid patterns. The cavities are positioned at different angles relative to the longitudinal axis, creating an asymmetric distribution that allows staples to form flexible, interlocking patterns in the tissue, thereby preventing missing staples and improving staple line consistency without significantly increasing device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements curvature principles through the angular and curved arrangement of staple cavities along the cartridge surface. Instead of straight linear rows, the cavities follow curved paths and angular orientations, allowing the staple line to conform to curved tissue surfaces and improve flexibility while maintaining reliable staple placement
2Manufacturing precision
If standard cutting elements are used, then the device structure is simple, but tissue gap adjustment and cutting precision are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the cutting element adjustable and movable relative to the staple cartridge. The cutting element can be positioned at different distances from the cartridge deck, allowing dynamic adjustment of the tissue gap. This enables precise control over tissue compression and cutting depth, improving cutting precision while the adjustment mechanism adds only moderate complexity to the overall device
Solution Approach 2:
The cutting element is designed as a separate, modular component that can be independently adjusted and replaced. This segmentation allows the cutting element to be optimized for precision cutting while maintaining simplicity in the overall device structure, as the complex adjustable cutting mechanism is isolated as a distinct module rather than integrated throughout the entire device
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 system ensures consistent staple placement, increased flexibility in staple lines, and improved tissue handling, reducing the risk of staple line defects and enhancing surgical precision and efficacy.
Implementation Method 1
the anvil is moved toward the staple cartridge to compress and clamp the tissue against the deck. Thereafter, staples removably stored in the cartridge body can be deployed into the tissue
Implementation Method 2
The firing member is configured to contact the sled and push the sled toward the distal end
Implementation Method 3
The sled comprises a plurality of ramped surfaces configured to slide under the drivers and lift the drivers, and the staples supported thereon, toward the anvil
Implementation Method 4
combined with a cutting element that adjusts tissue gap and incises tissue during stapling
Data Source
AI summary
An anvil for a surgical end effector is disclosed. The anvil can include a staple-forming surface, wherein pockets are defined in the staple-forming surface. The pockets can be aligned with staples in a staple cartridge. Moreover, the pockets can define a perimeter in the staple-forming surface, and the perimeter of at least one pocket can be nested with the perimeter of at least one other adjacent pocket. For example, an extended landing zone of a first pocket can extend into a receiving peninsula of a second, adjacent pocket.