Ultrasonic surgical instrument with integral blade cleaning feature

Inventors

Faller, Craig N. • Stegeman, JoAnn M. • Weizman, Patrick A. • Kimball, Cory G. • Widenhouse, Tamara S. Vetro • Muhlenkamp, Tylor C. • Kelly, William D. • Bertke, Brian D. • Tellio, Karalyn R.

Assignees

Cilag GmbH International • Cordis Corp

Abstract

An ultrasonic instrument comprises a body, a shaft assembly, an ultrasonic blade, and a pivoting member. The shaft assembly extends distally from the body. The ultrasonic blade is positioned distal to the shaft assembly. The pivoting member is pivotable with respect to the blade from an open position to a closed position to thereby clamp tissue between the pivoting member and the blade. The shaft assembly comprises a feature to provide for the removal of surgical debris (e.g. tissue, coagulated blood, etc.), body fluid, etc. from the shaft assembly. The feature may remove the surgical debris, body fluid, etc. from a cavity within the shaft assembly. The feature may also prevent the collection of surgical debris, body fluid, etc. within the shaft assembly.

Core Innovation

The invention relates to an ultrasonic surgical instrument comprising a body, a shaft assembly extending distally from the body, and an end-effector ultrasonic blade acoustically coupled with an acoustic waveguide. A cavity is defined between the waveguide and ultrasonic blade and corresponding exterior surfaces of the shaft assembly, and the disclosure addresses surgical debris and body-fluid buildup associated with the ultrasonic blade and waveguide.

The instrument further includes a clamp arm assembly pivotable relative to the body and shaft assembly, with a clamp pad configured to pivot between an open position and a closed position relative to the ultrasonic blade. A cleaning feature comprises a cap rotatably coupled with a distal portion of the shaft assembly, where the cavity is also defined between an interior surface of the cap and corresponding exterior surfaces of the waveguide and the ultrasonic blade.

Rotation of the cap is driven by the clamp arm assembly by pivoting the clamp pad from the open position to the closed position, to remove surgical debris from the cavity and from one or both of the exterior surfaces of the waveguide or the ultrasonic blade and the interior surface of the shaft assembly. The disclosed debris management and cleaning arrangements also include sealing arrangements using radial seals and materials such as bristles or absorbent/soft materials, translatable wipers driven by a sliding trigger, and a sleeve positioned in the cavity with a tapered section and scrubbing elements.

Claims Coverage

The independent claims cover three related surgical instrument configurations that integrate an ultrasonic blade with an acoustically coupled waveguide in a distal shaft cavity, and provide mechanisms to remove or prevent accumulation of surgical debris within the cavity. Across the independent claims, there are four main inventive features.

Taken together, the independent claims cover an ultrasonic surgical instrument in which a distal cavity is defined around an acoustically coupled waveguide and ultrasonic blade, and in which surgical debris removal or prevention is achieved by a clamp-arm-driven rotatable cap positioned in the cavity or by a protective sleeve having a tapered section and interior scrubbing elements that scrub debris in response to activation of the acoustic assembly.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications