Development of a Space-Creating Flexable Retractor for Tele-operated Laparoscopic Surgery - Improvement of Intestine-Manipulability by Large-Area Contact and Flexion Capabilities

摘要

We successfully developed a new flexing retractor that allows stably manipulating the small intestine with large contact areas in laparoscopic surgeries. The retractor in thin bar easily going into the coelom from the outside through a trocar with the diameter of 12[mm] allows to spread to a palm-sized plane with contact areas of 150*70[mm{sup}2] in the abdominal cavity. In addition, it can be flexed to 60[deg] maximum whichever spread or unspread, helping surgeons intuitively move the small intestine in the desired direction. In vitro experiments indicating that the retractor is superior to a flexing retractor with a small-area contact and an unflexible retractor with large-area contact in terms of both time required to move away and number of failures to retract the small intestine confirm the effectiveness of the developed retractor.