Tissue Anchor with Suture Exchange Aperture
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Solution Overview
Problem
Surgical anchor repairs for attaching soft tissue to bone are prone to biomechanical failures such as suture cutting, breakage, knot slippage, and anchor pullout, necessitating a solution to enhance the stability and reliability of the attachment process.
Innovation Solution
A tissue anchor device with a flexible elongated element that secures a suture in a way that maintains an open aperture, allowing for suture exchange and secure attachment to bone, featuring a distal tip that enhances implantation forces and a suture exchange fitting that accommodates different suture angles and loads.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional suture anchors are used to attach soft tissue to bone, then the attachment can be achieved, but the risk of biomechanical failures such as suture cutting, breakage, knot slippage, and anchor pullout increases
Solution Approach 1:
The suture system is divided into multiple independent sutures (e.g., first suture, second suture, third suture) rather than relying on a single suture. This segmentation ensures that if one suture fails, the others can maintain the attachment, thereby reducing the overall risk of biomechanical failure while achieving reliable soft tissue-to-bone attachment
Solution Approach 2:
The patent incorporates pre-configured knotless anchors with integrated suture retention features that are designed beforehand to prevent suture slippage and breakage. The anchors include built-in mechanisms such as flanges, channels, and retention elements that cushion and protect the sutures from harmful forces before failures can occur
2Reliability
If multiple sutures are used to enhance attachment reliability, then the risk of biomechanical failures is reduced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple sutures and their associated anchors are merged into a single integrated implantable device assembly. The device includes a body with multiple passages, each containing an anchor and suture configuration, allowing all components to be implanted together as one unit rather than separately, thereby reducing procedural complexity while maintaining high reliability through multiple suture pathways
Solution Approach 2:
The anchor device is designed with universal features that can accommodate multiple sutures and different suture configurations within a single device structure. The body includes multiple passages and retention features that can handle various suture types and arrangements, reducing the need for multiple different device types while achieving reliable multi-suture attachment
Data Source
AI summary
A suture anchoring device for fixing a soft tissue to a bone tissue is disclosed that enables the exchange of sutures between anchors after implantation. The suture anchoring device may include a body that is inserted into the bone tissue, a suture exchange fitting situation within a passage formed within the body, and one or more pre-loaded sutures looped through the suture exchange fitting and projecting proximally from a proximal opening formed in the body. Surgical kits and surgical methods for performing various repair procedures using one or more suture anchoring device are also disclosed.