Minimally Invasive Nerve Dissector

Design of an Instrument for Sural Nerve Harvesting in Infants

Master thesis (2012)

Authors

Contributors

J. Dankelman (mentor)
P. Breedveld (mentor)
Programme
BME (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2012 Bakker, J.P.
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Published Date

26-10-2012

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Programme

BME

Abstract

The current method of minimally invasive harvesting the sural nerve in infants takes too much time. To reduce harvesting time a new Minimally Invasive Nerve Dissector (MIND) was designed. The MIND reduces instrument change by combining the two most used functions of the currently used instruments: firstly, the movement of the graft with the hook and secondly, the outwards motion of the micro scissors. Besides these two functions, the MIND was designed for a minimally invasive procedure and is much smaller than the current instruments. The MIND was evaluated on an artificial test facility simulating a leg of an infant. Using the test facility a test comparing the current instruments and the MIND was carried out. Measured were the time to harvest and the number of dissection instrument changes. The results of the test showed that both showed positive improvements with the MIND.