During minimally invasive surgeries, surgical instruments such as trocars, cannulas, and optical medical devices, including endoscopes, cystoscopes, arthroscopes, laparoscopes, etc., are inserted through small incisions or surgical portals in a patient's body or body cavity and manipulated to perform surgical procedures within the patient.
Minimally invasive surgical procedures are safer than open surgery and result in quicker patient recovery, shorter hospital stays, and lower health care costs. Accordingly, minimizing invasiveness continues to be of importance, and there is a continuing need for devices and methods that achieve this objective.
Areas that have benefited from minimally invasive surgical techniques include shoulder and knee surgery. Shoulder and knee surgery have evolved over the last several years from being open surgical procedures to arthroscopic surgical procedures. This evolution is the result of technological advances in equipment, instruments and implants.
During surgery, surgical portals are made into the patient to facilitate surgery and fluid is introduced into the surgical site to expand the joint and control bleeding. One concern involving arthroscopic surgery includes fluid leaking out of open unused surgical portals when surgical instruments are removed. Open portals tend to leak irrigation fluid which gets on the surgery room floor and the surgeon himself. Another concern involving arthroscopic surgery includes extravasation. Extravasation is the collection of interstitial fluid such as blood, irrigation fluids or medications into tissue surrounding an infusion site. Fluid escaping into the soft tissues of the shoulder and the periscapular region can have adverse effects on the patient. Some of these effects include tracheal compression, the accumulation of blood or clots in the joint (hemarthrosis), the forming of blood clots in veins (thrombophlebitis), arterial injury, nerve injury, the compression of blood vessels and nerves surrounding the joint (compartment syndrome), and infection. These effects cause longer recovery time as well as pain and discomfort in patients. Extravasation occurring during surgery can also cause premature collapse of the surgical field forcing surgeons to rush procedures.
Another concern during the performance of surgical procedures is the tendency of surgical instruments to be easily pushed out or removed from surgical portals. Many retention devices have been used to prevent the easy removal of devices during surgery. These devices and methods, however, can cause additional damage and trauma to tissue surrounding the surgical portal. Present tissue retention systems use a series of pointed ridges or threads disposed on the surface of arthroscopic surgical instrument to prevent the instruments from being easily removed from a surgical portal once they are disposed in the surgical portal.
Because of fluid leakage and the effects caused by extravasation and the trauma caused by traditional retention systems, devices and methods are needed to temporarily close unused surgical portals, reduce extravasation during arthroscopic surgery reduce and the trauma potentially caused by retention systems.