Trocar Cleaning Element for Sterile Scope Maintenance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Laparoscopic procedures face challenges due to compromised image or video feeds caused by lens obstructions from condensation and debris, which require lengthy interruptions and risk sterility when attempting to clean the lens outside the sterile environment.
Innovation Solution
A trocar assembly with an integrated scope-cleaning structure featuring a resilient cleaning element that can be moved from a default to a displaced state within the housing, allowing for debris removal without removing the scope from the sterile environment, utilizing a cleaning element with a surface configured to contact and clean the scope's distal end.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the lens is removed from the sterile environment for cleaning purposes, then the lens can be cleaned effectively, but the patient anesthesia time is prolonged and the risk of compromised sterility increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning element is integrated within the housing structure that maintains the sterile environment. The cleaning element can be actuated to contact the lens through the existing housing walls without requiring removal of the lens from the sterile field, thereby combining the cleaning function with the sterile barrier function.
Solution Approach 2:
The housing walls act as an intermediary structure that allows the cleaning element to access the lens while maintaining the sterile barrier. The cleaning element is positioned within the housing and can be actuated through controlled movement to contact the lens surface without breaching the sterile environment.
2Reliability
If the cleaning element is integrated within the housing, then sterility is maintained, but the cleaning accessibility may be limited
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning element is designed with movable characteristics, allowing it to be actuated from a retracted position to a extended position where it can contact the lens. This dynamic configuration enables the cleaning element to access the lens surface while remaining integrated within the housing structure that maintains sterility.
Solution Approach 2:
The cleaning element is structured as a separate, movable component within the housing rather than a fixed integral part. This segmentation allows independent actuation of the cleaning function while maintaining the integrity of the sterile barrier formed by the housing walls.
3Reliability
If the scope remains in the sterile environment during cleaning, then sterility is maintained, but the cleaning mechanism must be more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The housing incorporates flexible or deformable wall portions that can be actuated to facilitate movement of the cleaning element. These flexible structures enable the cleaning mechanism to operate within the constrained sterile environment without requiring complex external actuation systems.
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
Enables effective debris removal from the scope's lens within the sterile environment, reducing interruptions and maintaining sterility, thus improving surgical efficiency and reducing anesthesia time.
Implementation Method 1
The cleaning element may be formed of a resilient material such that the cleaning element includes a tendency to assume the default state in the absence of an input force
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to a housing for a laparoscopic trocar assembly with an integrated scope-cleaning structure. The housing may include a shell forming a wall portion of a chamber and a cleaning element forming at least a portion of an internal surface of the chamber, the cleaning element configured to remove debris from a distal end of a scope upon contact between the cleaning element and the distal end of the scope. The cleaning element may be movable with respect to the shell of the housing in response to an input force upon the shell that moves a portion of the shell and a portion of the cleaning element between a default state and a displaced state.