Methods and devices to decrease tissue trauma during surgery

Inventors

Crenshaw, Hugh Charles • Pell, Charles Anthony

Assignees

Physcient Inc

Abstract

Methods and devices are disclosed to reduce the tissue trauma that occurs when a physician retracts or otherwise deforms a patient's tissues for surgery or other medical procedures. In one part, methods and devices are disclosed for controlling the force and pace of retraction to reduce tissue trauma. In another part, methods and devices are disclosed for applying an oscillating load when opening. In another part, pads that cool the tissue around the incision are disclosed. In another part, pads that elute drugs into the tissues of the tissue margin are disclosed. In another part, methods and devices are disclosed that self-align components of the retractor and engage hard tissues directly to avoid soft tissue damage. In another part, pads that engage tissues to cushion, to sense tissue state, and to modulate tissue state are disclosed.

Core Innovation

The invention provides an automated control device for deforming a patient's tissue during a procedure. It includes a tissue engager configured to engage the patient's tissue and a sensor configured to produce a first signal based on the deformation of the patient's tissue. An automated control system receives the first signal during the procedure and controls the tissue engager to deform the tissue based on the first signal received from the sensor.

The automated control system performs a plurality of measurements during the procedure based on the first signal over time. It calculates a variance in the plurality of measurements over an interval of time preceding an instantaneous measurement of the first signal, where the variance is a statistical distribution of amplitude of the plurality of measurements during the interval of time preceding the instantaneous measurement. The system compares the substantially instantaneous measurement of the first signal to the calculated variance, detects a state of the patient's tissue based on the comparison, and controls a motion of the tissue engager based on the detected state.

The disclosed approaches include reducing tissue trauma during tissue deformation by controlling deformation mechanics and loading patterns. These include applying substantially constant force to accommodate viscoelastic creep, applying oscillating and/or cyclic loading to accelerate force relaxation and reduce peak forces and large tissue breaks, and detecting imminent tissue fracture or trauma using force signal transients and signal variance events.

Claims Coverage

The provided partial content specifies one independent claim and includes five main inventive elements, focused on automated tissue-engager control using variance-based comparison of sensor signal measurements over time.

The independent claim centers on variance-based detection of a tissue state using sensor-derived deformation signals measured over time, followed by controlling the motion of a tissue engager based on that detected state.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications