Surgical needle with hand-actuable lock mechanism

Details Surgical needle with hand-actuable lock mechanism Surgical needle with hand-actuable lock mechanism

1999-05-18

2001-05-22

Nguyen, Anhtuan T. (Department: 3763)

Surgery

Means for introducing or removing material from body for...

Treating material introduced into or removed from body...

C604S164070

Reexamination Certificate

active

06235001

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to surgical tools and, more specifically, to a surgical needle with a hand-actuable lock mechanism for holding one part of the needle approximately fixed relative to another part. One embodiment of the needle includes a hollow needle through which a push rod slides, and the lock is used to hold the push rod fixed relative to the hollow needle. Such hollow needle/push rod assemblies often are used when depositing, sampling or removing material within living tissue.
The lock mechanism of the present invention may be mounted on various types of needles, push rods, catheters, stents, trocars, cannulas, wires and stylets. The detailed description of the invention, below, is based on an embodiment that may be used in prostate brachytherapy, in which radioactive seeds are implanted in a human prostate while the needle and seeds are monitored by ultrasound sensors and imaging devices. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,461,280, 4,700,692 and 4,815,449, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose background information about the deposition of radioactive seeds within human tissue.
The lock mechanism may be used with other known surgical tools, such as trocar and cannula assemblies, in which an inner member such as a rod or inner hollow needle slidingly fits within and extends through an outer hollow needle to block or interact with an open end of the outer needle. For example, fluid and tissue samples may be taken from a specific part of the body by penetrating the desired part of the body with the end of a needle, and then removing a rod from within the needle to open a hollow cavity in the needle and admit fluid or tissue. A syringe or other injection device may also or alternatively be attached to the needle if fluids or solids are to be injected. Examples of such tools are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,207,647, 5,242,427, 5,290,304, 5,368,046, and 5,556,411, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The lock of the present invention will be described with reference to a surgical needle that includes a hollow, sharp, pointed needle that extends from a grip, mounted on the needle. A push rod extends through the hollow needle to push material through the needle, and the lock is operatively connected to both the needle and rod to lock the rod relative to the needle. The lock is formed as part of the grip, and is shaped so that a surgeon may hold and direct the point of the needle, and lock and unlock the lock to selectively limit movement of the push rod relative to the needle.
This embodiment of the needle may be loaded with material such as radioactive seeds to be deposited within living tissue. When so loaded, the needle assembly is in a loaded position. The material contained within the needle assembly may be extruded by moving either the push rod or the hollow needle relative to the other. When the push rod is inserted fully into the hollow needle, the needle assembly is in an empty position.
The needle and push rod may be used collectively to deposit material in living tissue, preferably by inserting the needle loaded with material into the tissue. The push rod then is held in a fixed position relative to the tissue and the needle is slid back over the push rod, forcing material out of the needle as the needle is withdrawn from the tissue. By carefully controlling the relative motion of the push rod to the needle, material may be distributed through the tissue as desired, typically along a line traced by the point of the needle as it is withdrawn from the tissue.
The lock mechanism preferably may be controlled by squeezing and releasing the grip. For example, the lock mechanism may be unlocked when the grip is squeezed, and locked when the grip is not squeezed. This has been found to be particularly useful for surgical procedures, because the surgeon will need to have a hand on the device to control its relative motion anyway, and the squeezing of the lock does not limit the surgeon's ability to maneuver the needle.
When the lock of the assembly is unlocked, the needle preferably slides freely relative to the push rod. In one embodiment of the invention, the lock mechanism is formed by fingers that extend toward the push rod from outwardly biased arms of the grip. Holes are formed within the fingers, oversized relative to the push rod so that it may slide freely through the holes when the arms are squeezed.
The advantages of the present invention and its various embodiments will be understood more readily after a consideration of the drawings and the Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4013080 (1977-03-01), Froning
patent: 4461280 (1984-07-01), Baumgartner
patent: 4700692 (1987-10-01), Baumgartner
patent: 4815449 (1989-03-01), Horowitz
patent: 4969879 (1990-11-01), Lichte
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patent: 5290304 (1994-03-01), Storace
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patent: 5836914 (1998-11-01), Houghton
Advertisement for “Performance Plus Needle Sentry,” by Standard Imaging of Middleton, Wisconsin, Oct. 15, 1998.

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