Power assisted liposuction and lipoinjection equipment

Surgery – Means for introducing or removing material from body for... – With means for cutting – scarifying – or vibrating tissue

Reexamination Certificate

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Reexamination Certificate

active

06258054

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention is generally related to powered hand tools used in surgical operations and, more particularly, to hand tools used in liposuction and lipoinjection procedures.
2. Background Description
Liposuction is a well known surgical procedure for surgically removing fat tissue from selected portions of a patient's body. Current practice is to make an incision and then insert a cannula in the space occupied by fat tissue. The cannula is then moved in such a manner as to mechanically break up the fat tissue. While moving the cannula, pieces of the fat tissue are aspirated from the space through the cannula by vacuum pressure from a syringe or pump. This technique requires significant effort on the part of the surgeon in terms of both the physical effort required to move the cannula back and forth, and the effort required to control the direction of movement of the cannula in order for fat tissue to be withdrawn only from specific areas of the patient's body. It would be advantageous to provide equipment which reduces the physical demands on the surgeon, and allows easier control of the direction of cannula movement.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,491 to Parisi et al. discloses a liposuction tool which utilizes an ultrasonic probe to break up the fat tissue. U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,955 to Rosen discloses a liposuction apparatus which employs microwave energy to soften fat tissue. The disadvantage of both these approaches is that they do not control the direction of liposuction, and can lead to withdrawing fat tissue unevenly, thus producing a lumpy surface upon completion of the surgery.
Swartz discloses, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,735,605, 4,775,365, and 4,932,935, power assisted liposuction tools which include an external sheath which houses a rotary driven auger type element. Fat tissue is selectively sheared at an opening in the external sheath by the auger element pulling tissue within the opening and shearing it off at the opening. In one of the designs, Swartz contemplates oscillating the direction of rotation of the auger element. U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,462 to Clark discloses a lipectomy tool which has an inner cannula with a knife edge opening which rotates within an outer cannula. In Clark, fat tissue is drawn by suction into an opening the outer cannula, and is then sheared off by the knife edge of the inner cannula and aspirated to a collection vessel. A disadvantage with each of these Swartz and Clark designs is that they tend to tear the tissue. This can be problematic when working in confined spaces near blood vessels and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,112,302 to Cucin discloses a powered liposuction hand tool that moves a cannula back and forth in a reciprocating manner. Back and forth movement is akin to the movements made be surgeons, and is therefore a marked improvement over the rotary designs of Swartz and Clark. However, the Cucin design is fairly clumsy and requires the cannula and reciprocating mechanism to move within a portion of the hand held base unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,352 to Greco et al. describes an automated liposuction device with reciprocating cannula movement that is akin to Cucin's; however, this device relies on a pneumatic cyclinder drive system, with multiple sensors, and a computer controller to adjust and regulate the cannula movement. Overall, the Greco system is complex and subject to a variety of drive control problems, as well as high costs for various elements. In addition, the Greco system is designed to provide cannula stroke lengths which are in excess of 1 cm, which is not ideal in a number of different circumstances.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,535 to Cucin discloses another power assisted liposuction instrument similar to that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,112,302 to Cucin. The design in U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,535 utilizes movement of an internal sleeve within an external sleeve to shear off fat tissue pulled within an opening in the external sleeve. The design in U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,535 is complex in that it requires multiple sleeves, and the reciprocating movement causes periodic changes in the aspiration aperture. U.S. Pat. No. 4,536,180 to Johnson discloses a surgical system for suction lipolysis which employs an internal or external air conduit which directs airflow at or near the cutting tip of the cannula to enhance fat tissue clearance during aspiration through the cannula. U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,300 to Williams discloses suction lipectomy tool which allows suction control via the surgeons thumb covering and uncovering vent holes in the lipectomy tool housing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved, power-assisted, reciprocating liposuction tool which overcomes the problems of the prior art and provides a design that is simple in construction, and which provides improved control in the direction and accuracy of fat removal (i.e., eliminates “bumpiness” at the edges of the operated areas; makes it possible to easily remove small patches on the neck, etc.).
It is another object of this invention to provide a hand held, power liposuction tool which drives an external cannula, and which has a form fitting configuration for the surgeon's hand which allows neat storage and selective disengagement of the aspiration tubing, ease in monitoring clogging in the aspiration tube, and simple and direct control of the cannula drive speed.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide power-assisted liposuction tool wherein the forward and rearward stroke length of the cannula cam be set tp be equal to or greater than the size of the cutting window or windows in the cannula.
It is still another object of this invention to provide for the selective connection of disposable and/or reusable cannulas to a power assisted liposuction tool, and to provide for the use of cannulas having a variety of configurations including bullet nosed, spatula tipped, and blunt tipped, each of which may have a single or multiple cutting windows.
It is yet another object of this invention provide a power assisted, reciprocating cutting tool with a suction control feature which allows for adjusting the cutting and aspiration conditions for different tissues.
It is still another object of this invention to provide for a filtering system to be used in conjunction with a power assisted liposuction tool which retains aspirated fat tissue for ease in washing and re-use in lipoinjection procedures.
According to the invention, a powered surgical handpiece includes a reciprocating member to which a cannula is connected. The handpiece drives the cannula back and forth under the control of a drive mechanism that preferably provides for variable speeds of reciprocation. The hand piece can employ any type of drive mechanism; however, a pneumatic, variable speed drive is preferred. In the preferred embodiment, cannulas are connected external to the hand piece by a connector which secures the cannula to a reciprocating member. The connector can either be integral with the cannula, integral with the reciprocating member or constitute a piece which is separate from and connectable to each of the reciprocating member and the cannula. In the most preferred embodiment, the connector is separate from the reciprocating member, and is designed to quickly connect to and disconnect from the reciprocating member by a pushbutton fitting or similar device.
In the preferred configuration, the connector spaces the cannula radially from the axis of the reciprocating member such that the when the cannula is installed, it moves in a reciprocating motion along an axis that is parallel to the axis of the reciprocating member. The offset thus created allows the cannula to be positioned in alignment with a vacuum hose or other vacuum mechanism, such that fat tissue will be freely aspirated through the cannula into the vacuum tube. In the most preferred configuration, the vacuum hose fits directly onto the end of the cannula.
The vacuum hose can be securely connected to the handpiece housing by one or more slot members p

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