ConMed Electrosurgery

Being a market leader in electrosurgical generators gave ConMed the industry clout to develop a new to the world electrosurgical device that would revolutionize energy-based tissue sealing. This was due in large part to a breakthrough heating element technology used to heat seal the vessel. The challenge for Insight was to incorporate these heater plates in the proximal tip of the device and make them clamp in a completely parallel motion to increase the effectiveness of the seal. A real challenge, since the traditional scissor action now had to translate into a parallel motion assembly all while fitting down a five millimeter trocar.
 

Iterate…A Lot

The Insight approach was to break it down to manageable sub-assemblies and components and iteratively build up to the ideal overall assembly. In this case, the team started with the parallel movement of the jaws and worked their way backwards to the handpiece, designing and building component breadboards at every step. A great deal of attention was paid to the force required to close the lever of both the 5mm and 10mm handpiece. Innovation in the mechanical linkage design of the grasper mechanism resulted in a reduction in the amount of force required to operate.
 

Research Driven Grip Architecture

For the ergonomic design of the Altrus® headpiece, Insight relied on years of surgical handtool development experience combined with a focused discovery effort on grip architectures and surgeon preferences. The resulting design outputs created the modified “T” lever trigger design that offers a unique approach to providing a variety of grip points and styles accommodating the large variations in surgeon hand sizes. The stabilization hood offers balance when holding the handpiece so minimum grip force is used thereby reducing fatigue and increasing accuracy. These and other ergonomic innovations will accommodate a wide variety of Surgeon grip preferences, surgical styles and anthropometric ranges that will surely improve surgical outcomes.