FASCIA CLOSURE DEVICE

Abstract

This project is an outcome of a MOU between SMME, NUST and Shifa Clinical Research Centre (SCRC) of Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad. During wound closure procedures in operation theaters, surgeons deal with surgical needles and most of the time they come across needlestick injuries accidentally. Such injuries may cause various diseases like Hepatitis A, B, C or HIV etc. The requirement behind this research was to develop an Automatic Fascia Closure Device for surgeons who perform fascia closure surgeries in the operation theaters. The requirement of SCRC team was a light weight, safe, robust, low cost, ergonomically efficient and autoclavable fascia closure device that can rotate a curved surgical needle both in forward and reverse directions with proper lock mechanism. In order to meet the requirements of end user, initially the design of a fascia closure device was designed in SolidWorks software. Inputs of SCRC were taken about the design and this design was modified to meet the requirement of end user. After the approval of design, the device was fabricated. The device has two main parts i.e. main body and head or cartridge. There is an attaching mechanism called neck that attaches the main body and head together. The head is designed in such a way that it can be detached from the rest of the assembly whenever required. The head assembly comprises of metallic gears attached through shafts with metallic rollers. The drive gear is attached with motor shaft through a metallic extension that remains fixed with the motor shaft when the head or cartridge is detached from the rest of the assembly. A low rpm, high torque DC motor is utilized in this project that is operated by a 12V-1A DC adapter. The fabricated device has a length of 225mm and its weight is 450grams. The device can rotate a curved surgical needle in forward as well as in reverse directions. Before handing over the device to SCRC, it was tested for suturing of tissue equivalent materials and its working was found satisfactory. The surgeons tested the device on a cadaver at Shifa International Hospital and they accepted and approved the device. The device is light weight, safe, robust, autoclavable and ergonomically efficient and fully meets the requirements of end user.