Further Refinements In An Aortic Anastomosis Stapling Device.
Syed T. Raza.
Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
We have previously reported on developing a circular surgical stapler for anastomosing matching-size Dacron tube graft to aorta. A prototype was developed and in bench experiments using bovine aorta we validated the concept and showed that this device could potentially save significant amount of time to perform aortic surgery and would almost eliminate postoperative bleeding. The prototype we have developed had the following limitations for use clinically: 1. Current prototype is made of stainless steel and so quite heavy. 2. It was too short and would be difficult to work in a deep chest cavity. 3. The profile of the stapling limbs around an anvil was too large, which may be difficult to maneuver inside the chest. 4. It requires use of both hands to operate and so not easy to work with. 5. The staples had to be loaded manually between each use. We have now made the following improvements in a re-designed device: 1. Length of the new device is 16 inches including the handle for reaching deep chest cavity. 2. Profile of the stapling limbs around the anvil was reduced. 3. Using materials like plastic and aluminum the weight of the device was reduced to less than half. 4. The anvil is detachable for easy manipulation and snapped into place with a magnetic latch. 5. Stapling limbs come pre-loaded with staples easily re-loadable into the device after each use. 6. The new pistol grip will make it one-hand operation device. This device will now be ready for clinical use.
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