Surgical Instrument

The present invention relates to a surgical instrument for minimall-invasive surgery, comprising a handle, a shaft and an actuating part, characterised by a gastight cover surrounding the shaft, wherein the cover is provided with a coupler that has a feed- through opening with a loskable seal, through which feed- through opening, after the seal is unlocked, the shaft with the actuating part can reach.Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin

Developments in minimally invasive surgery and interventional techniques (misit)

Mechanical Maritime and Materials Engineerin

Seeing from a new angle: design of a sideways-looking fiber-optic probe to advance spine surgery

Our research highlights the potential of Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) in detecting cortical breaches during pedicle screw placement. We propose a sideways-looking fiber-optic probe, integrating diffuse light emission with both forward and sideways light collection. Experiments on an optical tissue phantom validate the probe’s potential to distinguish bone tissues and provide real-time guidance for spine surgery. Our findings prove that DRS with diffuse emission can detect perpendicular breaches, and demonstrate how the integration of a 45◦ slanted fiber coated with gold enables parallel breach detection, advancing spine surgery by allowing for accurate pedicle screw placement.Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired Technolog

SATA-LRS: A modular and novel steerable hand-held laparoscopic instrument platform for low-resource settings^☆

Background: Hospitals in low resource settings (LRS) can benefit from modern laparoscopic methodologies. However, cleaning, maintenance and costs requirements play a stronger role while training and technology are less available. Steerable laparoscopic instruments have additional requirements in these settings and need extra identified adaptations in their design. Method: Several modular detachability and tip steerability features were applied to the SATA-LRS instrument platform designed specifically for LRS. Ten subjects participated a dis- and reassembly experiment to validate the modularity, and in a steering experiment using a custom made set-up to validate steering. Results: A new steerable SATA-LRS instrument was developed with the ability to exchange end-effectors through a disassembly of the shafts. Experiments showed an average 34 and 90 s for complete dis- and reassembly, respectively. Participants were able to handle the instrument independently after a single demonstration and 4 rounds of repetitions. Precise tip-target alignment in the box set-up showed a very short learning-curve of 6 repetitions. Conclusion: A novel instrument platform with articulating and rotating end-effector was designed for LRS. Within a minute the SATA-LRS can be disassembled to component level for inspection, cleaning, maintenance and repair, and can be autonomously reassembled by novices after a minimal training. The modular buildup is expected to reduce purchasing and repair costs. The instrument has been shown intuitive by use without extensive training.Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired Technolog

New Technologies Supporting Surgical Interventions and Training of Surgical Skills: A Look at Projects in Europe Supporting Minimally Invasive Techniques

Biomechanical EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin

Surgical process modelling strategies: which method to choose for determining workflow?

The vital role of surgeries in healthcare requires a constant attention to improvement. Surgical process modelling is an innovative and rather recently introduced approach for tackling the issues in today’s complex surgeries. This modelling field is very challenging and still under development, therefore, it is not always clear which modelling strategy would best fit the needs in which situations. The aim of this study was to provide a guide for matching the choice of modelling strategies for determining surgical workflows. In this work, the concepts associated with surgical process modelling are described, aiming to clarify them and to promote their use in future studies. The relationship of these concepts and the possible combinations of the suitable approaches for modelling strategies are elaborated and the criteria for opting for the proper modelling strategy are discussed.Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired Technolog

Inflicted head-injury by shaking-trauma in infants: the importance of spatiotemporal variations of the head’s rotation center

Inflicted head injury by shaking trauma (IHI-ST) in infants is a type of abusive head trauma often simulated computationally to investigate causalities between violent shaking and injury. This is commonly done with the head’s rotation center kept fixed over time. However, due to the flexibility of the infant’s neck and the external shaking motion imposed by the perpetrator it is unlikely that the rotation center is static. Using a test-dummy, shaken by volunteers, we demonstrated experimentally that the location of the head’s rotation center moves considerably over time. We further showed that implementation of a spatiotemporal-varying rotation center in an improved kinematic model resulted in strongly improved replication of shaking compared to existing methods. Hence, we stress that the validity of current infant shaking injury risk assessments and the injury thresholds on which these assessments are based, both often used in court cases, should be re-evaluated.Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired Technolog

Joystick

A joystick having more than two degrees of freedom, at least designed for movement in the x and y direction at right angles to a longitudinal axis thereof, and in a rotational direction around said longitudinal axis, and provided with a fourth degree of freedom in the direction of the longitudinal axis, wherein the same is provided with a handle for manual operation, and the handle comprises a first tubular member surrounded by a second tubular member, wherein the first tubular member is designed for movement in the x and y direction and wherein the second tubular member is designed for sliding along and rotating around the first tubular memberMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin

Differences in abdominal force between conventional and single port laparoscopy

In laparoendoscopic single-site surgery (LESS), only one single incision is used to introduce all instruments into the abdominal cavity. The introduction of multi-channel single-port devices enabled insertion of laparoscopic instruments and laparoscope through one single entry point instead of multiple entry points in conventional laparoscopic surgery (CLS). From recent studies is known that the distance between instruments influences the force exerted on tissue during manipulation. To investigate whether this force difference can also be found on the abdominal wall, a two-dimensional force measurement mechanism was designed and incorporated in a standard trainer box. The sensors were used to measure the abdominal force exerted by either the standard trocar or the single-port device on the artificial skin that mimics the abdominal wall. A randomized crossover study consisted of 16 students and three experienced surgeons was conducted. The subjects were asked to perform a task with two different instrument configurations (CLS and LESS) in randomized order. The results showed that when performing a force-related task with LESS configuration, the maximum abdominal force was significantly higher compared with the conventional twoport CLS configuration.Biomechanical EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin