Delivering haemostats in laparoscopic surgery

Challenge

To develop a tool to quickly and safely deliver a large surface area haemostat pad to bleeds during laparoscopic surgery.

Approach

Working closely with a consultant vascular surgeon, we put together a team of surgical design and engineering experts to generate several concepts to address the challenge. Combining our product development expertise and the surgeon’s knowledge, we were able to rapidly progress ideas into clinically and technically feasible working prototypes.

Outcome

An innovative prototype surgical tool which can efficiently deliver a haemostat pad during laparoscopic surgery.

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Sector
Surgical

Services
Rapid ideation
Design
Mechanical engineering

Client
Selentus Science

Illustration of laparoscopic surgery

Designing a tool to deliver haemostats

Our client, Selentus Science, had developed a haemostat pad, the TenaTac, which securely binds to bleeds due to its novel manufacturing technique and increased surface area. The TenaTac was already being successfully used in open surgery; however, its large surface area made use during laparoscopic surgery a challenge. Selentus needed a way to safely and reliably deliver the haemostat through a trocar to enable it to be used during laparoscopy.

Illustration of laparoscopic surgery

Understanding clinical needs

The haemostat needed to be deliverable via a 10mm trocar into the surgical site, both quickly and efficiently. Team Consulting worked closely with the client’s chief medical officer, a former surgeon, to understand the clinical need for this challenge and develop a technically and clinically feasible solution.

Working through an iterative process of prototyping, testing and seeking clinician feedback, we identified the physical properties of the haemostat and the appropriate methods of handling it in the sterile environment. These learnings were then fed back in each cycle to rapidly steer us towards a solution.

Oliver Harvey, Senior Engineering Consultant, Team Consulting

Addressing multiple use steps

The development team identified three core steps which needed to be addressed to prepare the haemostat for delivery: flatten, roll and introduce. Realising that one device wouldn’t necessarily need to do all three steps, the team developed several concepts to address these design challenges.

Preparing the haemostat

Having determined that the efficacy of the haemostat would not be impacted by changing its shape, the team devised a simple device to consistently flatten the haemostat to the required thickness.

Insertion into the trocar

A key challenge was the ability to maintain a tight coil during insertion – the haemostat could also become distressed while being forced into the trocar tube. We sampled a number of concepts to address this challenge.

We realised quickly that clean and repeatbale insertion into the trocar was the key to success before delivery to the bleed site. Our focus was to enable this with as few user steps as possible whilst keeping the design of the device simple and low cost.

Steve McLellan, Senior Design Consultant, Team Consulting
Gloved hands holding trocar

Enabling accurate haemostat delivery

The solution needed to allow the haemostat to be manipulated into position once in the surgical site. To achieve this, we designed a system which could slowly push the haemostat out of the trocar, allowing the grasper from the second port to take hold of it and place it on the wound.

Outcome

A novel prototype solution that is now under patent review by Selentus Science, who plan to progress the surgical device into a full development.

One of the things I love about innovation is overcoming challenges through hands on, practical design. Team has a great set of problem solvers that clearly have a huge range of experience dealing with MedTech problems. Working with them has been great because we now have some good, cost effective solutions we can take back to the NHS.

Paul Hayes, CMO, Selentus Science

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