Insulating grips for minimally invasive surgical instruments

Inventors

Alesi, Christopher • Pelletier, Dennis

Assignees

Microline Surgical Inc

Abstract

A surgical instrument with insulating grips is described. The grips can include internal metal frames that are arranged to limit electrical conductivity within the grips and to other components that attach to a grip, such as a ratchet. The internal metal frames can be constructed of multiple internal portions, spatially separated from one another to interrupt electrical conductivity between the internal portions, but coated with an insulating overmold to provide mechanical coupling between the portions. An internal metal frame can also include a notch, cut-out, or other region partially surrounded by the structure of the internal metal frame, which can be coated with an insulating overmold to define a region of the grip that does not have an internal metal frame therein but which can include an attachment point for mechanically coupling other components while limiting electrical coupling between the metal frame and the other components.

Core Innovation

The invention relates to minimally invasive surgical instruments that include a handle with an electrical port for receiving a voltage or a current and communicating the voltage or the current to a surgical tip. The handle is coupleable to the surgical tip to transfer motion from at least one of a first grip and a second grip to actuate the surgical tip.

Each grip is mechanically coupled to the handle and includes an internal metal frame covered by an insulating overmold. A first internal metal frame portion is electrically coupled to the electrical port, while at least a portion of a second internal metal frame is electrically isolated from the electrical port, using insulating overmold relationships between metal components.

The design supports electrical safety by controlling electrical coupling between metal components and the electrical port while maintaining mechanical coupling of grip structures to transfer motion. The disclosed approach can include electrically isolated mechanical features such as a ratcheting mechanism while enabling motion transfer to actuate an electrically powered surgical tip.

Claims Coverage

The document includes two independent claims, a device claim and a method claim, that define the same inventive construct. The core coverage centers on at least three inventive elements: electrical-port-to-tip communication, insulating overmold-covered internal metal frames with electrical coupling and electrical isolation, and motion-transfer grip-to-tip actuation.

The key coverage is the combination of an electrically communicating handle electrical port with grips that use insulating overmolds to establish electrical coupling versus electrical isolation between internal metal frames, while mechanically coupling the handle to transfer grip motion to actuate a surgical tip.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications

No documented applications found