Tissue Access Guidewire System for Minimally Invasive Spinal Procedures
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current minimally invasive surgical techniques for treating spinal stenosis are invasive, cause significant tissue damage, and often require spinal fusion, leading to long-term morbidity and loss of spinal function.
Innovation Solution
A guidewire system and method for positioning surgical devices between tissues, allowing for less invasive procedures by advancing a guidewire between target and non-target tissues and coupling it with surgical devices to perform procedures while protecting non-target tissues.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If conventional surgical techniques are used to treat spinal stenosis, then complete access to target tissues is achieved, but significant tissue damage and spinal fusion are required
Solution Approach 1:
The surgical approach is segmented into distinct components: a guidewire for navigation, a protective sheath with working ports, and modular surgical instruments. This segmentation allows the surgeon to access target tissue through small incisions while the protective sheath shields non-target tissues, eliminating the need for extensive tissue disruption required in conventional open surgery
Solution Approach 2:
A protective sheath acts as an intermediary device that provides a controlled access pathway to target tissues while shielding non-target tissues from damage. The sheath includes working ports that allow surgical instruments to reach the target area through a protected corridor, enabling minimally invasive treatment of spinal stenosis without requiring complete exposure of the surgical field
2Object-affected harmful factors
If minimally invasive techniques are used, then tissue damage is reduced, but positioning surgical devices precisely between tissues becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
A guidewire is advanced through the tissue plane between the ligamentum flavum and facet joint before the protective sheath is inserted. This preliminary positioning establishes the correct trajectory and depth, ensuring that subsequent surgical instruments will accurately reach the target tissue (such as hypertrophied ligamentum flavum) while maintaining the protective barrier around non-target structures
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs radiopaque materials and imaging guidance to visualize the position of the guidewire, protective sheath, and surgical instruments relative to anatomical landmarks. This allows the surgeon to detect and measure the precise positioning of devices between tissues using fluoroscopic or other imaging modalities, overcoming the limitation of reduced direct visualization in minimally invasive approaches
3Loss of time
If less invasive procedures are performed, then recovery time is reduced, but the ability to perform complex surgical procedures is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The protective sheath is designed as a universal platform that can accommodate multiple different surgical instruments through its working ports. The same sheath and guidewire system can be used for various procedures including resection of ligamentum flavum, facet joint decompression, and other spinal stenosis treatments, providing versatile surgical capability through a single minimally invasive access pathway
Solution Approach 2:
Surgical instruments are nested within the protective sheath, which itself is positioned around the guidewire. This nested configuration allows complex surgical tools to be delivered through a small incision while maintaining the protective barrier. The instruments can be advanced, activated, and retracted through the sheath's working ports, enabling complex surgical procedures to be performed through a minimally invasive approach that reduces recovery time
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for guiding at least a portion of a surgical device to a desired position between two tissues in a patient's body involves coupling a guidewire to the device and pulling the distal end of the guidewire to guide at least a portion of the surgical device to a desired position between the two tissues. The surgical device generally includes one or more guidewire coupling members and may comprise a tissue access device. A system may include a guidewire and a surgical device. In some embodiments, a guidewire, a tissue access device, and one or more additional devices to use with the access device may be provided. Methods, devices and systems may be used in open, less-invasive or percutaneous surgical procedures, in various embodiments.