Granted Patent B2

US 12,243,439 · App. 17/339,362 · Granted Mar 4, 2025

Inventors: Joel B. Velasco (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA); Jacob J. Filek (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA); Nico Slabber (Corona, CA); Samantha Chan (Dana Point, CA); Branden Carter (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA); Zachary Michaels (Irvine, CA); Nathan Landino (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA); Brandon Pereles (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA); Eduardo Bolanos (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA); Cory S. Hague (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA); Gregory K. Hofstetter (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA); Sean Kenneday (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA); Timothy McMorrow (Trabuco Canyon, CA); Jigar Shah (Irvine, CA); Jimmy Ho (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA); Lindsey Chase (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA)

Assignee: Applied Medical Resources Corporation

G09B23/285A61B2034/258G09B23/30

Abstract

Claims (60)

1. An instrument for surgical training comprising:

a handle assembly that comprises:

a shaft assembly removably connected to the handle assembly, and

a handle that is operably connected to a proximal end of a movement arm,

wherein the shaft assembly includes a tool element at a distal end of the shaft assembly, a shaft, and a rod having a proximal end and a distal end connected to the tool element, wherein the rod is disposed inside the shaft of the shaft assembly, the proximal end of the shaft assembly is removably connected the distal end of the movement arm via the rod, and wherein actuation at the handle moves the movement arm and the rod of the shaft assembly to operate the tool element;

at least one sensor attached directly to the handle assembly and configured to acquire and transmit at least one relational data of the instrument with respect to a training environment during a training procedure, wherein the at least one sensor is configured to track user movements of the instrument during the training procedure; and

a computer system connected to the at least one sensor configured to receive, store, and process the at least one relational data and to output at least one feedback to a user after the training procedure based on processing of the at least one relational data,

wherein to process the at least one relational data comprises evaluating an economy of motion of a user performing a surgical procedure, the economy of motion calculated by:

calculating an average path length of other users performing the same surgical procedure as the user,

measuring a path length undertaken by the user during the surgical procedure, and

comparing the measured path undertaken by the user against the calculated average path length of the other users performing the same surgical procedure as the user via an equation:

Economy

⁢

of

⁢

motion

=

average

⁢

path

⁢

length

⁢

of

⁢

the

⁢

other

⁢

users

measured

⁢

path

⁢

length

⁢

undertaken

⁢

by

⁢

the

⁢

user

.

2. The instrument of claim 1 , wherein the path length undertaken by the user is calculated by:

taking a dot product of adjacent orientation vectors in a data sequence obtained by the at least one sensor,

converting the dot product into an angle of change in orientation of the instrument during the surgical procedure,

for each angle of change associated with the data sequence, multiplying a length of the tool element with angle to obtain an arc length associated with how far a tip of the tool element traveled, and

summing a series of arc lengths to obtain the path length the user undertook during the surgical procedure.

3. The instrument of claim 1 , wherein the at least one sensor includes one or more of an accelerometer, gyroscope, or magnetometer.

4. The instrument of claim 1 , wherein the tool element is configured as a scissor, grasper, or dissector.

5. The instrument of claim 1 , wherein the training environment includes a laparoscopic trainer defining an interior and at least one simulated tissue disposed in the interior of the laparoscopic trainer.

6. The instrument of claim 5 , wherein the training environment further comprises an internal camera that records actions performed by the user and an external video monitor that displays the actions captured by the internal camera.

7. The instrument of claim 1 , wherein the training procedure is selected by the user from a plurality of pre-defined training procedures displayed by the computer system.

8. The instrument of claim 1 , wherein the user is provided the at least one feedback as a graphical result.

9. The instrument of claim 1 , wherein the computer system further performs pre-processing on the at least one relational data provided by the at least one sensor, wherein the pre-processing performed by the computer system comprises identifying and calibrating for errors specific with the at least one sensor.

10. The instrument of claim 9 , wherein the calibration for errors specific with the at least one sensor includes generating a calibration constant or a set of coefficients that are used to compensate for errors for relational data obtained from that specific sensor.

11. The instrument of claim 1 , wherein the other users comprise a pool of expert users.

12. The instrument of claim 11 , wherein the computer system allows for user selection of the other users from which associated data will be used to compare with the user performance during the surgical procedure.

13. The instrument of claim 1 , wherein the computer system further displays the calculated economy of motion of the user alongside data of the average path length of the other users performing the same surgical procedure.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (400)