Categorization of NOTES and SILS instruments
A great article appeared from the ACMIT partner Delft Bio-Mech group on the systematic categorization of steerable tools.
"Background
- This review article provides a comprehensive overview and
classification of the joint types used in the steerable tips of
minimally invasive surgical instruments. The review was carried out with
the objective to pinpoint the essence of the joints' fundamental
mechanical design and to provide a qualitative comparison of their
strengths and weaknesses with respect to a number of straightforward
criteria.
Method of Approach - Besides researching the ASME scientific literature,
the entire Espacenet patent database was searched using the keywords
endo* or lapar* or surg* in title and steer* or articu* or deflect* in
title or abstract. The extensive scope of the patent results was further
limited to WO, US and EP patents only as well as to the period of the
last decade, 2003-2013, with a few exceptions predating this period.
Overall, more than 840 patents were reviewed and categorized on the
basis of the joints' mechanical design and supplemented with the
scientific papers.
Results - A number of joint categories and subcategories were
identified. At the fundamental level the joints can be differentiated as
planar and spatial, where the spatial are further split as
perpendicular mirrored and revolved. Based on the means of establishing
rotational motion, the joint types can be discriminated as rolling,
sliding, the combination of rolling and sliding, and bending. Lastly,
the rolling and sliding categories can be further split with regard to
the phenomenon or feature used for transferring the rotational motion,
i.e. friction, teeth, belts, curved features and hinges.
Conclusions - In general, the most favored joint types were identified
as sliding hinged joints, sliding curved revolved joints and the bending
joint category overall. Nevertheless, it was recognized that no single
fundamental joint type can be considered as ideal and that novel and
preferably more superior joint configurations can be generated by
combining several fundamental categories together.
Not so long before, another article appeared from the same group. Enjoy reading!
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