Surgical evacuation sensing and motor control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019201082-A1
Application number	US-201816024066-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 29, 2018
Priority date	Dec 28, 2017
Publication date	Jul 4, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

Surgical systems can include evacuation systems for evacuating smoke, fluid, and/or particulates from a surgical site. A surgical evacuation system can be intelligent and may include one or more sensors for detecting one or more properties of the surgical system, evacuation system, surgical procedure, surgical site, and/or patient tissue, for example.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A surgical evacuation system, comprising:
a pump; a motor configured to drive said pump; a housing, comprising:
an inlet port;
an outlet port; and
a flow path defined through said housing from said inlet port to said outlet port, wherein said pump is positioned along said flow path;
a sensor positioned along said flow path, wherein said sensor is configured to detect a particulate concentration in a volume of fluid moving past said sensor; and a control circuit configured to:
receive a signal from said sensor indicative of the particulate concentration in the volume of fluid; and
transmit a drive signal to said motor to automatically modify a speed of said motor based on the signal from said sensor.

2 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 1 , wherein said sensor is positioned at a location selected from one of the following locations: a first location adjacent to said inlet port and a second location adjacent to said outlet port.

3 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 1 , wherein said control circuit is configured to:
operate said motor in a first operating state in which the speed of said motor is selected by an operator; and operate said motor in a second operating state in which the speed of said motor is automatically modified based on the signal from said sensor.

4 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 3 , wherein said control circuit selectively implements the second operating state when the signal from said sensor exceeds a threshold value.

5 . The surgical evacuation system claim 3 , further comprising:
a filter receptacle along said flow path intermediate said inlet port and said pump, wherein said sensor is positioned upstream of said filter receptacle; and a second sensor positioned along said flow path downstream of said filter receptacle, wherein said second sensor is configured to detect a particulate concentration in a volume of fluid moving past said second sensor.

6 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 5 , wherein said control circuit is configured to receive a second signal from said second sensor, and wherein said drive signal to said motor is also based on said second signal.

7 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 5 , further comprising a replaceable filter positioned in said filter receptacle.

8 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 1 , wherein said sensor comprises a laser particle counter.

9 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 3 , further comprising a user interface, wherein the speed of said motor is selectable via said user interface.

10 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 9 , wherein the drive signal to said motor to automatically modify the speed of said motor based on the signal from said sensor overrides the speed of said motor selected via said user interface when an override condition is satisfied.

11 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 1 , further comprising a processor and a memory communicatively coupled to said processor, wherein said memory stores instructions executable by said processor to modify the speed of said motor based on the signal from said sensor.

12 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to:
receive a signal from a sensor of a surgical evacuation system, the surgical evacuation system further comprises a pump, a motor configured to drive the pump, a housing having an inlet port and an outlet port, and a flow path defined through the housing from the inlet port to the outlet port, wherein the sensor is positioned along the flow path, and wherein the sensor is configured to detect a particulate concentration in a volume of fluid moving past the sensor; and automatically transmit a drive signal to the motor to modify a speed of the motor based on the signal from the sensor.

13 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to:
increase the speed of the motor when the particulate concentration is greater than a first threshold amount; and decrease the speed of the motor when the particulate concentration is less than a second threshold amount.

14 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to stop the motor when the particulate concentration exceeds a threshold amount.

15 . A surgical evacuation system, comprising:
a pump; a motor configured to drive said pump; a filter receptacle; a housing, comprising:
an inlet port;
an outlet port; and
a flow path defined through said housing, wherein said flow path fluidically couples said inlet port, said filter receptacle, said pump, and said outlet port;
a first sensor positioned in said flow path upstream of said filter receptacle, wherein said first sensor is configured to detect particulate in a fluid moving through said flow path; a second sensor positioned in said flow path downstream of said filter receptacle, wherein said second sensor is configured to detect the concentration of particulate in the fluid moving through said flow path; and a control circuit configured to:
receive a first signal from said first sensor, wherein the first signal is indicative of particulate concentration present in the fluid upstream of said filter receptacle;
receive a second signal from said second sensor, wherein the second signal is indicative of particulate concentration present in the fluid downstream of said filter receptacle; and
transmit a drive signal to modify a speed of said motor based on at least one of the first signal and the second signal.

16 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 15 , further comprising a user interface, wherein the speed of said motor is selectable via said user interface.

17 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 15 , further comprising a filter positioned within said filter receptacle.

18 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 15 , wherein said control circuit is configured to:
increase the speed of said motor when the particulate concentration upstream of said filter receptacle is greater than a first threshold amount; and decrease the speed of said motor when the particulate concentration downstream of said filter receptacle is greater than a second threshold amount.

19 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 15 , wherein said control circuit is configured to:
operate in an automatic mode in which the speed of said motor is based on at least one of the first signal and the second signal; and operate in a manual mode in which the speed of said motor is based on a user override input.

20 . The surgical evacuation system of claim 15 , wherein said control circuit comprises a processor and a memory communicatively coupled to said processor, and wherein said memory stores instructions executable by said processor to modify the speed of said motor based on at least one of the first signal and the second signal.

Assignees

• Ethicon Llc

Inventors

• Shelton Iv Frederick E
• Yates David C
• Greep Darcy W
• Harris Jason L

Classifications

• G05B19/0428

  Safety, monitoring (G05B19/0423 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G16H40/63

  for local operation · CPC title

• A61B17/320068

  using mechanical vibrations, e.g. ultrasonic (A61B17/22012 takes precedence; dental tooth drilling devices operated by vibration A61C3/03; removing intra-ocular material using mechanical vibrations A61F9/00745) · CPC title

• A61B18/1477 Primary

  Needle-like probes · CPC title

• A61B34/35

  for telesurgery · CPC title