Metal working – Means to assemble or disassemble – Including work conveyer
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-20
2001-01-30
Bryant, David P. (Department: 3726)
Metal working
Means to assemble or disassemble
Including work conveyer
C029S715000, C029S788000, C029S796000, C053S430000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06178622
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to the field of devices enabling a surgical needle and a suture thread to be assembled together.
Numerous devices have already been proposed for securing a needle to a suture thread.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,922,904 thus proposes a device for connecting a suture to a needle, which device automatically inserts one end of a suture thread into a surgical needle, presses the needle in such a manner as to pinch the thread in the needle, and then cuts the suture thread to a predetermined length.
In general, automated devices for assembling needles and suture thread are designed to fix the thread in the needle before cutting the thread at a selected location, between the needle and a reel on which the thread is stored prior to assembly.
Such devices suffer from a major drawback.
Being stored on a reel gives the thread an arcuate rest shape which is troublesome while handling the thread when performing a suture operation. More precisely, arcuate threads tend to roll up onto themselves and to move elastically into or in front of the wound where being sutured.
It is therefore preferable to use threads that tend to take up a rectilinear shape. That is why proposals have been made to provide such reel devices with means for heating the thread so as to give it a rectilinear rest shape. Such heater means give rise to expensive production costs and such heating tends to weaken the suture thread.
Proposals have already been made to use suture threads that are precut to lengths close to their length after assembly, and for them to be stored in rectilinear manner in a bundle, sheaf, or skein.
That type of storage also makes it possible to store the same total length of thread in a smaller space than when using reel storage.
Also, each time a reel is changed, reel devices require the thread to be threaded through the device, which is difficult to do and requires the tension of the thread along its path between the reel and the needle to be watched constantly.
Proposals have therefore also been made for devices that assemble suture thread with needles that are adapted to insert, in a needle, a segment of thread that has been precut to its final length.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,384 discloses a device which is used as follows. An operator manually inserts one end of a segment of suture thread in a needle, and then places the needle fitted with the suture thread inside the device and actuates a control pedal of the device to crimp the needle onto the suture thread.
Those devices suffer from the major drawback of requiring an operator to take hold of one segment only from the bundle of segments, and to bring it to the needle before inserting it in the needle.
The operation of extracting one segment only from a collection of segments turns out to be very trying for an operator. On each assembly, the operator must first fix attention on the sheaf of segments, then on the needle and the end of one segment. On each assembly, the operator must therefore look closely at two different zones situated at two different distances from the eyes, and that gives rise very rapidly to a high degree of eye fatigue.
More generally, devices for assembling needles and suture thread provided in the form of precut segments require human intervention. As a result they are slow and present high production costs.
The main aim of the present invention is to propose a device for assembling needles and suture thread which is fed with suture thread in the form of a bundle or sheaf of segments, and which automatically extracts a single segment of suture thread from the bundle of segments.
Another object of the invention is to propose a device for assembling surgical needles and segments of suture thread which operates without human intervention.
According to the present invention, these objects are achieved by a device for assembling a surgical needle and a suture thread, comprising an extractor device for extracting one segment of suture thread from a bundle of segments, the extractor device comprising means suitable for displacing segments by air flowing transversely to the longitudinal direction of the bundle, a suction inlet suitable for being placed laterally relative to the bundle, and two sliding surfaces suitable for guiding one segment to the suction inlet when the segments are displaced by the flow of air.
In an advantageous but non-limiting disposition, a device is provided in which the suction inlet is constituted by an element that is movable between a first position in which the inlet is close enough to the bundle to receive one segment thereagainst under the effect of its suction on its own or assisted by other air flows generated by the device, and a second position that is further away from the bundle.
The invention also provides a method of assembling a surgical needle and a segment of suture thread using such a device, the method comprising the steps consisting in:
placing said element in its first position;
moving segments of the bundle against the sliding surfaces by means of a flow of air and sucking one segment against the suction inlet;
moving said element into its second position while maintaining sufficient suction to ensure that the segment remains pressed against the suction inlet;
taking hold of the segment and engaging it in a surgical needle; and
fixing the surgical needle on the segment.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4419859 (1983-12-01), Mima
patent: 4722384 (1988-02-01), Matsutani
patent: 5664404 (1997-09-01), Ivanov et al.
Bryant David P.
Ethicon S.A.S.
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