Computational modeling and design of a new open clip surgical instrument

Abstract

This research introduces a new surgical clip instrument with improved mechanism to apply the metal clips to patient's vessel/tissues in the surgical operations. The improved clip delivery system has been designed and developed in the instrument to improve the clip distal move from clip channel into jaw guide track and resolve the problems of clip accidental shooting out when clip is being loaded into jaw pair by compression spring that has been normally used in some current surgical clip instruments. With this improvement, this new surgical open clip instrument can prevent patient's vessels and tissues from being damaging because the distal move of clips is well controlled without clip drop-off incident. Plus the operational force to form the clip is lower than regular surgical instruments due to new mechanism design. In addition to the above, the manufacturing and product cost can be decreased because the dimensional tolerance of components, such as clip channel and jaw guide track, can be wider due to this new instrument design. The prototype of this new instrument is analyzed and optimized through computer aided modeling and simulation, in order to prove its feasible function, reliable performance, and mechanical advantage. All these improved features have also been tested and verified through the prototype. With some further improvement to this new instrument design and valuable evaluations from surgeon and clinical fields in next several months, the commercial availability of this surgical clip instrument will be anticipate in 1–2 years.