Systems and methods leveraging audio sensors to facilitate surgical procedures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12295690-B2
Application number	US-202217734150-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 2, 2022
Priority date	Jun 15, 2021
Publication date	May 13, 2025
Grant date	May 13, 2025

Abstract

A surgical system includes at least one audio sensor configured to sense audio during a surgical procedure and to output audio data based on the sensed audio. The surgical system further includes a computing device operably coupled to the at least one audio sensor and configured to receive the output audio data from the at least one audio sensor. The computing device includes a processor and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to determine at least one of a cause or a location of a sound based at least on the output audio data and to output an indication of the at least one of the cause or location of the sound.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A surgical system, comprising:
at least one audio sensor disposed on a surgical device having at least one jaw member, the at least one audio sensor configured to sense audio during a surgical procedure and to output audio data based on the sensed audio; and
a computing device operably coupled to the at least one audio sensor and configured to receive the output audio data from the at least one audio sensor, the computing device including a processor and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
determine a location of a sound with respect to the surgical device based at least on the output audio data; and
output an indication of the location of the sound.

2. The surgical system according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is caused to determine the location of the sound within an internal surgical site based on the output audio data, and wherein outputting the indication of the location of the sound includes displaying, on a display providing a video image of the internal surgical site, an icon overlaid over the video image of the internal surgical site at a location on the video image corresponding to the location of the sound.

3. The surgical system according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is caused to determine a cause of the sound and wherein outputting the indication includes outputting an indication of the cause of the sound.

4. The surgical system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the at least one audio sensor is a first audio sensor of a plurality of audio sensors, the plurality of audio sensors including a second audio sensor; and
the first audio sensor is disposed within an internal surgical site and the second audio sensor is disposed external of the internal surgical site.

5. The surgical system according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is caused to determine a cause or the location of the sound based on the output audio data and additional data including at least one of: stored data, location data, or feedback data.

6. The surgical system according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is caused to convert at least a portion of the output audio data into image data and to determine a cause of the sound based on the image data.

7. The surgical system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one audio sensor is disposed on a jaw member of the surgical device.

8. The surgical system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one audio sensor is disposed externally on the surgical device.

9. A surgical system, comprising:
a plurality of audio sensors, at least one audio sensor of the plurality of audio sensors coupled to a surgical device having at least one jaw member, the at least one audio sensor configured for positioning within an internal surgical site, at least one other audio sensor of the plurality of audio sensors configured for positioning external of the internal surgical site, each audio sensor of the plurality of audio sensors configured to sense audio and to output audio data based on the sensed audio; and
a computing device operably coupled to the plurality of audio sensors and configured to receive the output audio data from each audio sensor of the plurality of audio sensors, the computing device including a processor and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
determine a location of a sound with respect to the surgical device based at least on the output audio data; and
control operation of at least one surgical instrument based on the determined location of the sound.

10. The surgical system according to claim 9 , wherein at least one audio sensor of the plurality of audio sensors is disposed on a jaw member of the surgical device.

11. The surgical system according to claim 9 , wherein the processor is caused to determine both a cause and the location of the sound based at least on the output audio data.

12. The surgical system according to claim 9 , wherein the processor is caused to determine the location of the sound based on the output audio data and additional data including at least one of: stored data, location data, or feedback data.

13. The surgical system according to claim 9 , wherein the processor is caused to convert at least a portion of the output audio data into image data and to determine a cause of the sound based on the image data.

14. The surgical system according to claim 9 , wherein the processor is caused to control operation of the at least one surgical instrument by outputting a signal to inhibit actuation or activation of the at least one surgical instrument.

15. A surgical system, comprising:
at least one audio sensor coupled to a surgical device configured to sense audio during a surgical procedure and to output audio data based on the sensed audio; and
a computing device operably coupled to the at least one audio sensor and configured to receive the output audio data from the at least one audio sensor, the computing device including a processor and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
convert at least a portion of the output audio data into image data;
determine a location of a sound with respect to the surgical device based on the image data; and
output at least one of an indicator or a control signal based on the determined location of the sound.

16. The surgical system according to claim 15 , wherein converting the at least a portion of the output audio data into the image data includes applying a melody Short-Time Fourier Transform to the at least a portion of the output audio data to obtain a melody spectrogram as the image data.

17. The surgical system according to claim 15 , wherein the processor is caused to determine a cause of the sound based on the image data by implementing a convolutional neural network (CNN).

18. The surgical system according to claim 17 , wherein the processor is caused to output the control signal based on the determined cause of the sound, the control signal configured to at least one of: inhibit actuation of at least one surgical instrument, inhibit activation of the at least one surgical instrument, or change an operating parameter of the at least one surgical instrument.

19. The surgical system according to claim 15 , wherein the processor is caused to select the at least a portion of the output audio data to be converted, the selection based at least on a detection of the sound.

20. The surgical system according to claim 15 , wherein the processor is caused to select the at least a portion of the output audio data to be converted, the selection based at least on additional input data.

Assignees

• Covidien Lp

Inventors

• Wham Robert H
• Robinson William E
• Allen Iv James D

Classifications

• A61B34/37

  Leader-follower robots (A61B34/35 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A61B34/25

  User interfaces for surgical systems · CPC title

• A61B2017/00119

  alarm; indicating an abnormal situation · CPC title

• A61B2017/00203

  with speech control or speech recognition · CPC title

• A61B2562/0219

  Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches · CPC title