Surgery – Instruments – Cutting – puncturing or piercing
Patent
1999-05-13
2000-06-20
Dvorak, Linda C. M.
Surgery
Instruments
Cutting, puncturing or piercing
606174, 600104, 600197, A61B 1732, A61B 100, A61B 1267
Patent
active
060772867
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
DESCRIPTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an instrument for engaging an object upon actuating a remote activating element which is integrated into a displaceable handle of the instrument.
2. Prior Art
Instruments having a shaft element carrying an engaging element on its distal end, which is operated by a proximally disposed actuator element integrated into a handle are generally common in the field of bioengineering and particularly in endoscopy. Reference just by way of an example is made to tubular shaft instruments produced by Karl Storz GmbH & Co., Tuttlingen, Germany. Explicit reference is made to these instruments also as far as all other details are concerned which are not described here in all their details.
In the majority of the known instruments the handle is fixedly mounted on the instrument so that the axis of the handle and the longitudinal axis of the instrument shaft enclose a predetermined invariable angle. This angle is selected for a particular handling of the instrument in consideration of ergonomic aspects.
In the course of a surgical operation, however, working situations may occur in which the predetermined angle between the handle and the shaft renders handling more complicated.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,367 proposes an instrument in which the angular position of the handle may be adjusted relative to the shaft before a surgical operation is performed. Even though the operator can hence match the angular position with the individual requirements unforeseen operating conditions may yet result in the fact that the adjusted angular position, which can practically not be changed during the operation, is inexpedient from an ergonomic point of view.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention starts out from the finding that it may actually be necessary in theatre practice to operate an instrument, which is inserted, for instance, into a trocar sleeve or an instrument shaft, with a position of the hand other than that which the designer had assumed in the design of the instrument or which was expected before the operation when the angular position was determined.
The invention is therefore based on the problem of improving an instrument of the type described hereinabove in such a way that the handle position relative to the instrument shaft can be easily adjusted even in the course of an operation so as to permit an ergonomically expedient operation of the instrument independently of the respective surgical or application requirements.
For a solution to the inventive problem the invention starts out from an instrument in which the handle is mounted on the shaft element for movement in such a way that the angle enclosed between the handle axis and the axis of the shaft element may be varied.
In accordance with the present invention the handle is connected to the shaft element via a universal joint. The use of a universal joint presents the advantage that the universal joint can be easily adjusted even under the conditions of a surgical operation and in the associated stress situation so that an optimum adjustability of the handle position relative to the shaft is ensured. Moreover, a universal joint permits the adjustment of the position of the handle in "all directions", relative to the shaft of the instrument, so that not only the angular position may be changed.
It is an aim to achieve a suitable adjustment of the handle position relative to the longitudinal axis of the shaft element as a function of the operating conditions occurring as a result of the respective handling required for the surgical operation, such that the operator can, from an ergonomic point of view, expediently operate the instrument independently of the respective application.
With these provisions in particular it is hence possible to arrange the handle in such a way that its axis encloses an angle between 0.degree. and 90.degree. relative to the longitudinal axis of the shaft element.
In an improvement the handle may be rotated about the longitudinal axis of the shaft e
REFERENCES:
patent: 4950273 (1990-08-01), Briggs
patent: 5752973 (1998-05-01), Kieturakis
patent: 5836960 (1998-11-01), Kolesa et al.
Cuschieri Alfred
Frank Tim
Dvorak Linda C. M.
Karl Storz GmbH & Co. KG
Ram Jocelyn Debra
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