Controllable self-bending sewing needle
Technical Field
The present invention relates to a medical instrument for surgical use, and more particularly to a structure and method of use of a needle for performing a procedure through an endoscope.
Background
In the currently widely used wound suturing operation, a doctor performs the wound suturing operation using a three-eighths or semicircular arc rigid stainless steel suture needle 1. Needle 1 as shown in fig. 1, the needle has a semicircular shape with an axis 2. One end of the traditional stainless steel suture needle 1 is formed with a sharp edge, which is convenient for penetrating organ tissues; the section of the other end is shaped into a non-circular polygon (such as a triangle), which is convenient for the effective clamping of the needle holder. The suture is connected to one end of the non-circular polygon in cross section.
The suturing operation using a conventional needle is divided into two steps, tissue penetration and suture tying. As shown in FIG. 2, during tissue penetration, the surgeon needs to use two needle forceps to engage each other: firstly, a needle holding forceps is used for holding a suture needle 1, and a needle body is rotated around an axis 2 of the semicircular appearance of the suture needle to start the action of penetrating through organ tissues; when the needle 1 penetrates out of the other side of the tissue, the exposed end of the needle 1 is clamped by another needle holder, and the needle 1 continues to rotate around the axis 2 of the semicircular shape of the needle until the needle 1 completely penetrates the tissue. At this time, since the suture 3 is connected to one end of the needle 1, the suture 3 completely penetrates the tissue. Under the state, the doctor can continuously cooperate with the two needle forceps to realize the subsequent knotting action.
It can be seen from the foregoing description that the tissue penetration needs to be achieved by coordinating and matching two surgical instruments, and in the case that the needle holder is mostly a slender rigid straight rod, the tissue penetration is not easy to be achieved accurately, so that the whole suturing operation also becomes a difficult point in various surgical operations. If tissue penetration needs to be performed in a minimally invasive manner through an endoscope, additional difficulty is added to the task; in many minimally invasive procedures, the tissue penetrating action using conventional needles has not been performed.
U.S. patent No. 5,5219358 entitled "Shape memory effect surgical needles", filed 1991, 8/21, discloses a surgical needle made of Shape memory alloy, which has a low temperature state and a high temperature state. In the low-temperature state, the sewing needle is in a thin straight strip shape and can slide into a straight pipe; in its hot state, the needle is shaped into a predetermined arc for suturing in endoscopic surgery. However, the needle of this patent needs to be stored cryogenically before use, and quickly placed through the instrument channel of the endoscope into the body cavity, and after entering the body, heated to bring the needle into a high temperature arc for use in surgical suturing. In addition, the suture needle still needs to be clamped by using a needle holder, and is inconvenient to use in a narrow operation space of an endoscopic operation.
U.S. patent application No. 5573542, entitled "Endoscopic suture placement tool", filed 1994, 8.17, discloses an Endoscopic suture placement tool that engages a needle made of shape memory material with a drive shaft. When the tool is positioned in the instrument channel of the endoscope, the overall shape of the tool is consistent with that of the instrument channel; when the driving rod extends out of the instrument pipeline of the endoscope, the end part of the driving rod is bent into a hook shape and used as a sewing needle, the head part of the sewing needle is also provided with an eye for arranging the suture, and the suture installation or the suture removal can be realized by the aid of other instruments. However, the eye of the patent is drilled out of the needle body and the holding and releasing of the suture is "passive" (assisted by other instruments). The eye of the patent is drilled out of the needle body and does not provide the conditions that are achieved on small outer diameter (diameter below 1 mm) needle bodies. In addition, the instrument of the patent designs the pipeline interface to be diamond-shaped, and the end needle body can not rotate around the axis of the host needle tube.
US patent 6592559 entitled "Hollow, curved, super-elastic medical needle", filed 1999, 12.9, discloses a Hollow needle cannula made of super-elastic material for injection, which needle cannula is curved in shape when unconstrained, but can be constrained to straighten within the channel of a coaxial outer cannula when introduced into the body through the outer cannula. When the hollow needle tube extends out of the outer sleeve, the hollow needle tube returns to the bending shape when not restrained. The invention has no needlepoint and no suture, thus having no puncture and suture functions.
Accordingly, those skilled in the art have endeavored to develop a convenient-to-use needle for endoscopic surgery.
Disclosure of Invention
In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, the present invention is to provide a suture needle for endoscopic surgery that is easy to use
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a controllable self-bending suture needle for an operation performed by an endoscope, comprising a needle head, a needle body, a needle host tube and a needle delivery mechanism; wherein, the needle body is tubular, and the tip end is provided with the needle head; the needle body is integrally arranged in the host needle tube in a penetrating way; the needle host tube is provided with a hollow inner cavity, at least one end of the needle host tube is a rigid tubular end, and the other end of the needle host tube is fixedly connected with the needle delivery mechanism; one end of the needle body is a tip part, and the tip part is in a first pre-formed arc shape when not constrained; the other end of the needle body is connected with the needle sending mechanism, and under the pushing action of the needle sending mechanism, the needle body can selectively move and rotate relative to the host needle tube, so that the tip part of the needle body can be received in the rigid tubular end of the host needle tube or is exposed out of the rigid tubular end of the host needle tube at a required deflection angle; wherein when said tip portion is received within said rigid tubular end, said tip portion is constrained to a second shape conforming to said hollow lumen of said hosel tube at said rigid tubular end; one end of the needle head is provided with a blade edge for puncturing the tissue of the part to be sutured; the needle may be made of a relatively easily machined metal (e.g., stainless steel, rather than a difficult-to-machine nitinol), and a small hole is drilled through the needle for passage of a suture; the diameter of the other end of the needle head is slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the needle body, and the needle head can be assembled to the distal end part of the needle body or taken down from the needle body.
Preferably, at least the distal portion of the controllable self-bending suture needle is made of an elastic material having a strong restoring force. Further, the elastic material with strong restoring force is nickel titanium alloy.
Preferably, in said controlled self-looper, said rigid tubular end of said host tube is straight and said second shape is substantially straight. Or, in the controllable self-bending suture needle, the rigid tubular end of the host needle tube is in a bent tubular shape, and the second shape is in a bent shape. In addition, the overall shape of the host tube other than the rigid tubular end may be linear or curved.
Preferably, in the controllable self-bending sewing needle, the needle head is provided with a needle hole, so that a suture passes through and is connected with the needle head. Further, the outer diameter of the middle part of the needle head is larger than the inner diameter of the needle body, and a tapered transition structure from large to small is arranged between the middle part and the blunt end of the needle head; the inner cavity of the distal end part of the tubular needle body is provided with a horn mouth structure which is gradually enlarged from inside to outside and is matched with the conical transition structure, and when the needle body moves forwards, the needle body can push the needle head to move forwards together; when the needle body moves backwards, if the needle head is subjected to the friction force of tissues or is clamped and fixed, the needle head is separated from the needle body. The conical transition structure and the bell mouth structure can be conical surfaces or curved surfaces which can be mutually matched.
The present invention can be applied to a rigid tube type endoscope or a flexible tube type endoscope.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages and effects:
the invention has simple structure and simple and convenient control, the designed controllable self-bending suture needle simplifies the complex space motion of tissue penetration into the linear pushing motion of the needle body and the needle head by the needle feeding mechanism, the integral difficulty of tissue suture can be greatly simplified, and the separated needle head greatly facilitates the implementation of knotting action.
The conception, the specific structure and the technical effects of the present invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings to fully understand the objects, the features and the effects of the present invention.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a prior art rigid needle construction;
FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of the motion of a rigid needle of the prior art to effect tissue penetration;
FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the embodiment of FIG. 3 prior to initiation of penetration at the needle;
FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the internal structure of FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the embodiment of FIG. 3 with the needle at the point of penetration;
FIG. 7 is a schematic view of the embodiment of FIG. 3 with the needle disengaged after retraction of the needle;
FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of another preferred embodiment of the present invention;
figures 9 and 10 are partial perspective views of the needle of the embodiment of figure 8 at different viewing angles.
Detailed Description
The essential meaning of tissue penetration using a needle is that the suture is passed through both sides of the wound (or other place to be sutured) so that subsequent knotting of the suture can continue. The invention greatly simplifies the complexity of the tissue penetrating action by designing the sewing needle capable of accurately controlling the autonomous bending track and the needle feeding mechanism thereof, thereby reducing the overall difficulty of the sewing action.
As shown in FIG. 3, the first preferred embodiment of the present invention is composed of a needle tip 10, a needle body 20, a reserve tube 30 and a needle feeding mechanism 40.
The tubular needle body 20 is made of an elastic material having a strong restoring force, and the end thereof is provided with the needle head 10; the needle body 20 is integrally penetrated in the host needle tube 30; the pushing control of the needle feeding mechanism 40 can conveniently realize the tissue penetrating action. The tubular needle body 20 is subjected to a heat treatment process to set its original shape at its distal end (near the needle tip end) to a circular arc shape.
The restoring force of the elastic material after deformation is mainly determined by two factors, one factor is the Young modulus of the elastic material, and under the condition of a certain deformation amount, the larger the Young modulus is, the larger the deformation restoring force is; another factor is the elastic deformation range of the elastic material, i.e. the magnitude of the recoverable deformation amount, and in the case of a constant young's modulus, the larger the elastic deformation range, the larger the deformation recovery force.
The Young modulus of the nickel-titanium alloy in a certain proportion is about 70GPa, which is about one third of that of stainless steel; the elastic deformation range (elastic strain) can reach 6 percent, which is about 60 times of that of stainless steel; in the elastic deformation range, the nickel-titanium alloy needle body can generate restoring force which is tens times of that of a stainless steel needle body with the same size.
The venous catheter tube 30 is rigid, and the inner diameter thereof is slightly larger than the outer diameter of the needle body 20. The shape of the host tube 30 may be linear or arcuate.
Referring to fig. 5, needle 10 is provided with an eyelet to facilitate passage of a suture therethrough and attachment to needle 10. One end of the needle head 10 is sharpened to a tip end to puncture tissues; the opposite end of needle 10 is blunt and has a diameter slightly less than the inner diameter of needle 20 and can be fitted to or removed from needle 20 to accommodate the needs of the entire tissue penetration procedure. The outer diameter of the middle portion of the needle 10 is larger than the inner diameter of the needle body 20. A shoulder can be arranged between the middle part and the blunt end of the needle head 10, and a conical structure can also be adopted to be matched with the tail end of the needle body 20, so that when the needle body 20 moves forwards, the needle head 10 can be pushed to move forwards together; when the needle body 20 is moved rearward, the needle 10 will disengage from the needle body 20 if it is subjected to frictional forces or held in place by tissue.
The needle sending mechanism 40 can independently control the pushing length of the needle body 20, so that the needle body 20 moves along the axis direction of the host tube 30 or rotates around the axis of the host tube 30. The movement of the needle body 20 in the axial direction of the host tube 30 allows the tip portion of the needle body 20 to be housed inside the host tube 30 or to be exposed to the outside of the outlet of the host tube 30. Rotation of the needle body 20 about the axis of the host tube 30 exposes the distal end of the needle body 20 to the exit of the host tube 30 at a desired deflection angle for easier alignment with the tissue to be sutured.
The following describes the method of the present invention in detail with reference to fig. 4, 6 and 7.
1. As shown in FIG. 4, needle delivery mechanism 40 retracts needle body 20 inside of needle host tube 30, and another surgical instrument (e.g., needle holder) attaches needle 10 to the top of needle body 20, and a suture is attached to needle 10. The outlet of the host needle tube 30 is directed to a position to be sutured to the organ or tissue.
2. The needle feeding mechanism 40 pushes the needle body 20 out together with the needle tip 10. The needle body 20 automatically returns to the original circular arc shape in the process of outward release; with the help of the blade of the needle 10, it passes through the tissue in a circular arc trajectory, passing out of the tissue from the other side of the desired suturing position. During this process, the suture is also carried to the other side to be sutured, as shown in fig. 6, due to the suture attachment to needle 10.
3. The other needle holder grasps needle 10 that has passed through the tissue. Needle delivery mechanism 40 retracts needle body 20 to the exit of host tube 30, whereupon needle 10 is pulled away from needle body 20, leaving the other side of the tissue and the suture on the same side of needle 10, as shown in FIG. 7. The needle holder can now grasp the needle 10 and continue to pull the suture through the tissue. This completes one tissue penetration.
4. Needle 10 can be mounted back on the top of needle body 20 with needle forceps and returned to the position shown in fig. 4 for the next tissue penetration.
In fig. 3 to 7 of the present embodiment, the host tube 30 is a straight tube. In another embodiment, as shown in fig. 8 to 10, the host needle tube 30 'may be a bent tube, and when the distal end portion of the needle body 20 is received in the bent tube-shaped host needle tube 30', the distal end portion of the needle body 20 is restrained by the hollow lumen of the host needle tube 30 ', and accordingly bent in conformity with the hollow lumen of the host needle tube 30'.
The foregoing detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention has been presented. It should be understood that numerous modifications and variations could be devised by those skilled in the art in light of the present teachings without departing from the inventive concepts. Therefore, the technical solutions available to those skilled in the art through logic analysis, reasoning and limited experiments based on the prior art according to the concept of the present invention should be within the scope of protection defined by the claims.