Surgery – Endoscope – Having flexible tube structure
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-28
2004-11-16
Flanagan, Beverly M. (Department: 3739)
Surgery
Endoscope
Having flexible tube structure
C606S205000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06817974
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to surgical tools and, more particularly, to various wrist mechanisms in surgical tools for performing robotic surgery.
Advances in minimally invasive surgical technology could dramatically increase the number of surgeries performed in a minimally invasive manner. Minimally invasive medical techniques are aimed at reducing the amount of extraneous tissue that is damaged during diagnostic or surgical procedures, thereby reducing patient recovery time, discomfort, and deleterious side effects. The average length of a hospital stay for a standard surgery may also be shortened significantly using minimally invasive surgical techniques. Thus, an increased adoption of minimally invasive techniques could save millions of hospital days, and millions of dollars annually in hospital residency costs alone. Patient recovery times, patient discomfort, surgical side effects, and time away from work may also be reduced with minimally invasive surgery.
The most common form of minimally invasive surgery may be endoscopy. Probably the most common form of endoscopy is laparoscopy, which is minimally invasive inspection and surgery inside the abdominal cavity. In standard laparoscopic surgery, a patient's abdomen is insufflated with gas, and cannula sleeves are passed through small (approximately ½ inch) incisions to provide entry ports for laparoscopic surgical instruments. The laparoscopic surgical instruments generally include a laparoscope (for viewing the surgical field) and working tools. The working tools are similar to those used in conventional (open) surgery, except that the working end or end effector of each tool is separated from its handle by an extension tube. As used herein, the term “end effector” means the actual working part of the surgical instrument and can include clamps, graspers, scissors, staplers, and needle holders, for example. To perform surgical procedures, the surgeon passes these working tools or instruments through the cannula sleeves to an internal surgical site and manipulates them from outside the abdomen. The surgeon monitors the procedure by means of a monitor that displays an image of the surgical site taken from the laparoscope. Similar endoscopic techniques are employed in, e.g., arthroscopy, retroperitoneoscopy, pelviscopy, nephroscopy, cystoscopy, cisternoscopy, sinoscopy, hysteroscopy, urethroscopy and the like.
There are many disadvantages relating to current minimally invasive surgical (MIS) technology. For example, existing MIS instruments deny the surgeon the flexibility of tool placement found in open surgery. Most current laparoscopic tools have rigid shafts, so that it can be difficult to approach the worksite through the small incision. Additionally, the length and construction of many endoscopic instruments reduces the surgeon's ability to feel forces exerted by tissues and organs on the end effector of the associated tool. The lack of dexterity and sensitivity of endoscopic tools is a major impediment to the expansion of minimally invasive surgery.
Minimally invasive telesurgical robotic systems are being developed to increase a surgeon's dexterity when working within an internal surgical site, as well as to allow a surgeon to operate on a patient from a remote location. In a telesurgery system, the surgeon is often provided with an image of the surgical site at a computer workstation. While viewing a three-dimensional image of the surgical site on a suitable viewer or display, the surgeon performs the surgical procedures on the patient by manipulating master input or control devices of the workstation. The master controls the motion of a servomechanically operated surgical instrument. During the surgical procedure, the telesurgical system can provide mechanical actuation and control of a variety of surgical instruments or tools having end effectors such as, e.g., tissue graspers, needle drivers, or the like, that perform various functions for the surgeon, e.g., holding or driving a needle, grasping a blood vessel, or dissecting tissue, or the like, in response to manipulation of the master control devices.
Some surgical tools employ a roll-pitch-yaw mechanism for providing three degrees of rotational movement to an end effector around three perpendicular axes. The pitch and yaw rotations are typically provided by a wrist mechanism coupled between a shaft of the tool and an end effector, and the roll rotation is typically provided by rotation of the shaft. At about 90° pitch, the yaw and roll rotational movements overlap, resulting in the loss of one degree of rotational movement, referred to as a singularity.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to alternative embodiments of a tool having a wrist mechanism that provides pitch and yaw rotation in such a way that the tool has no singularity in roll, pitch, and yaw. In one preferred embodiment, a wrist mechanism includes a plurality of disks or vertebrae stacked or coupled in series. Typically the most proximal vertebrae or disk of the stack is coupled to a proximal end member segment, such as the working end of a tool or instrument shaft; and the most distal vertebrae or disk is coupled to a distal end member segment, such as an end-effector or end-effector support member. Each disk is configured to rotate in at least one degree of freedom or DOF (e.g., in pitch or in yaw) with respect to each neighboring disk or end member.
In general, in the discussion herein, the term disk or vertebrae may include any proximal or distal end members, unless the context indicates reference to an intermediate segment disposed between the proximal and distal end members. Likewise, the terms disk or vertebrae will be used interchangeably herein to refer to the segment member or segment subassembly, it being understood that the wrist mechanisms having aspects of the invention may include segment members or segment subassemblies of alternative shapes and configurations, which are not necessarily disk-like in general appearance.
Actuation cables or tendon elements are used to manipulate and control movement of the disks, so as to effect movement of the wrist mechanism. The wrist mechanism resembles in some respects tendon-actuated steerable members such as are used in gastroscopes and similar medical instruments. However, multi-disk wrist mechanisms having aspects of the invention may include a number of novel aspects. For example, a wrist embodiment may be positively positionable, and provides that each disk rotates through a positively determinable angle and orientation. For this reason, this embodiment is called a positively positionable multi-disk wrist (PPMD wrist).
In some of the exemplary embodiments having aspects of the invention, each disk is configured to rotate with respect to a neighboring disk by a nonattached contact. As used herein, a nonattached contact refers to a contact that is not attached or joined by a fastener, a pivot pin, or another joining member. The disks maintain contact with each other by, for example, the tension of the actuation cables. The disks are free to separate upon release of the tension of the actuation cables. A nonattached contact may involve rolling and/or sliding between the disks, and/or between a disk and an adjacent distal or proximal wrist portion.
As is described below with respect to particular embodiments, shaped contact surfaces may be included such that nonattached rolling contact may permit pivoting of the adjacent disks, while balancing the amount of cable motion on opposite sides of the disks. In addition, the nonattached contact aspect of the these exemplary embodiments promotes convenient, simplified manufacturing and assembly processes and reduced part count, which is particularly useful in embodiments having a small overall wrist diameter.
It is to be understood that alternative embodiments having aspects of the invention may have one or more adjacent disks pivotally attached to one another and/or to a distal or proximal wrist portion in t
Anderson S. Christopher
Chang Stacey
Cooper Thomas G.
Manzo Scott
Wallace Daniel T.
Flanagan Beverly M.
Intuitive Surgical Inc.
Townsend and Townsend / and Crew LLP
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