Suture Deployment Needle for Minimally Invasive Urethral Support
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical options for stress urinary incontinence, such as vaginal mesh surgery and colposuspension, come with significant complications and long recovery times, while less invasive methods like urethral bulking injections offer limited long-term success.
Innovation Solution
A needle designed to deploy sutures with a specific aperture configuration allows for precise placement of sutures in the periurethral tissue, providing support to the pubourethral ligament through a minimally invasive procedure, potentially reducing recovery time and minimizing synthetic material left in the body.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If vaginal mesh surgery is performed to treat stress urinary incontinence, then support to the urethra is provided, but permanent nerve damage, pain, incontinence and constipation occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the harmful synthetic mesh component from the treatment while retaining the beneficial suture support mechanism. The needle delivers sutures that provide urethral support without the associated risks of mesh-related complications such as nerve damage, pain, and chronic incontinence.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs absorbable sutures that provide temporary support during the critical healing period and then are naturally absorbed by the body. This eliminates the need for permanent synthetic materials like mesh, reducing long-term complications while maintaining treatment effectiveness during the necessary support period.
2Reliability
If colposuspension surgery is performed to treat stress urinary incontinence, then support to the periurethral region is provided, but recovery time takes a minimum of six weeks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the surgical procedure into a minimally invasive percutaneous needle delivery system rather than requiring open or laparoscopic surgical approaches. This segmentation allows the support function to be achieved through small punctures rather than large incisions, dramatically reducing recovery time from six weeks to potentially a few days while maintaining support effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a specialized needle as an intermediary delivery mechanism that enables suture placement through minimal tissue disruption. This intermediary tool allows the support function to be achieved without direct surgical exposure of the periurethral region, reducing trauma and accelerating recovery while maintaining the colposuspension support effect.
3Ease of operation
If urethral bulking injections are performed to treat stress urinary incontinence, then a less invasive procedure is provided, but long term success is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the minimally invasive delivery approach of bulking injections with the proven long-term effectiveness of suture-based colposuspension. The needle delivery system enables percutaneous suture placement that combines the ease of injection procedures with the durable mechanical support of traditional suturing, achieving both low invasiveness and high long-term success rates.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a composite approach combining the delivery mechanism of injection techniques with the structural support of absorbable sutures. This composite solution integrates the advantages of both methods: the minimal invasiveness of injection delivery with the proven long-term efficacy of suture-based support, overcoming the limitations of bulking agents alone.
4Reliability
If open colposuspension surgery is performed to treat stress urinary incontinence, then support to the periurethral region is provided, but a large abdominal incision is required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential support function from the complex open surgical procedure and delivers it through a simple percutaneous needle insertion. By removing the need for large abdominal incisions and complex surgical exposure while retaining the suture-based support mechanism, the treatment achieves the same reliability with dramatically reduced surgical invasiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the complex mechanical system of open surgical dissection, tissue manipulation, and suture placement with a simplified needle-based delivery system. This substitution maintains the mechanical support function through suture placement but eliminates the need for large incisions and complex surgical access, reducing device complexity and surgical invasiveness.
Data Source
AI summary
A needle (16) for deploying a suture is provided. The needle (16) has a feeding end (11) with an aperture (19) for receiving the suture and a pointed end (3) for creating an incision. The needle (16) extends between the feeding end (11) and the pointed end (3). The needle (16) also has a second aperture (18) and an interior channel (5) extending between the first aperture (19) and the second aperture (18) for transporting the suture from the first aperture (19) to the second aperture (18). A kit for deploying sutures includes at least one suture, at least one needle (16) and at least one pusher (12). The pusher (12) pushes the suture through the interior channel (5) of the needle (16) and out of the second aperture (18).