System and method for determining vessel size and/or edge

Inventors

Chaturvedi, Amal • Subramanian, Hariharan • Gunn, Jonathan • Vijayvergia, Mayank • Shukair, Shetha • Le Rolland, Paul

Assignees

Briteseed LLC

Abstract

A surgical system used to determine a size of a vessel within a region proximate to a working end of a surgical instrument includes at least one light emitter disposed at the working end, an array of light sensors disposed opposite the at least one light emitter, the array comprising a least one row of light sensors, individual light sensors in the row adapted to generate a signal comprising a pulsatile and a non-pulsatile component, and a controller coupled to the array, the controller comprising a splitter to separate the pulsatile component from the non-pulsatile component, and an analyzer to determine the magnitudes of the pulsatile and non-pulsatile components at the individual light sensors, to determine a first peak magnitude and a second peak magnitude of the pulsatile components, and to determine a resting outer diameter of the vessel based on the first and second peak magnitudes.

Core Innovation

The invention describes a surgical system that includes a surgical instrument having a working end with at least one light emitter and an array of light sensors disposed opposite the light emitter. The sensor array generates a signal that comprises a first pulsatile component and a second non-pulsatile component. An electronic controller couples to the array of light sensors and an output device, and the controller uses a splitter to separate the pulsatile component from the non-pulsatile component.

The analyzer determines the magnitudes of the pulsatile components at individual light sensors in a row of light sensors to identify a first peak magnitude and a second peak magnitude in the array. The first and second peak magnitudes represent the greatest fluctuations in a wall of the vessel. The analyzer measures a distance between a first point along the row associated with the first peak magnitude and a second point along the row associated with the second peak magnitude.

Based on the measured distance between the points associated with the first and second peak magnitudes, the analyzer determines a resting outer diameter of the vessel. The system performs the determination with minimal delay so that the resting outer diameter determination is characterized as real-time. The controller displays or indicates the resting outer diameter to a user via the output device.

Claims Coverage

The independent claim contains a single, primary inventive combination of light emitter and opposing sensor array at a surgical working end, signal component separation into pulsatile and non-pulsatile components, peak magnitude identification along a sensor row, distance measurement between points associated with those peaks, and real-time calculation and display/indication of vessel resting outer diameter.

The independent claim’s coverage centers on computing vessel resting outer diameter in real time by separating pulsatile versus non-pulsatile signal components and using peak magnitudes along a sensor row to define measurement points whose separation yields the resting outer diameter, followed by display/indication via an output device.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications