Stabilizer for robotic beating-heart surgery

摘要

Surgical methods and devices allow closed-chest surgery to be performed on a heart of a patient while the heart is beating. A region of the heart is stabilized by engaging a surface of the heart with a stabilizer without having to stop the heart. Motion of the target tissues is inhibited sufficiently to treat the target tissues with robotic surgical tools which move in response to inputs of a robotic system operator. A stabilizing surface of the stabilizer is coupled to a drive system to position the surface from outside the patient, preferably by actuators of the robotic servomechanism. Exemplary stabilizers includes a suture or other flexible tension member spanning between a pair of jointed bodies, allowing the member to occlude a coronary blood vessel and/or help stabilize the target region between the stabilizing surfaces.

主权项

1. A tissue stabilizer comprising:
a shaft having a longitudinal axis extending along a length of the shaft; first and second stabilizing bodies, wherein the first and second stabilizing bodies respectively have first and second tissue engaging surfaces, wherein the first and second tissue engaging surfaces are adapted to concurrently engage and inhibit movement of a target tissue in a same direction, surfaces, wherein the first and second stabilizing bodies respectively have first and second tissue non-engaging surfaces that are respectively on opposite sides of the first and second stabilizing bodies relative to the first and second tissue engaging surfaces, and wherein the first and second tissue engaging surfaces have higher friction surfaces than the first and second tissue non-engaging surfaces; a wrist assembly coupling the first and second stabilizing bodies to the shaft, the wrist assembly configured with a first pivot defining a first axis about which the first and second stabilizing bodies are pivotable together and a second pivot defining a second axis about which the first and second stabilizing bodies are pivotable individually, wherein the first and second axes are constrained by construction of the wrist assembly to be substantially orthogonal; and first and second grips operatively coupled through the shaft respectively to the first and second stabilizing bodies for individually pivoting the first and second stabilizing bodies about the second axis.