The development of new type gripper for increasing patient safety in minimally invasive surgery

Minimally invasive surgery is a closed type of surgery performed with long, thin graspers and cameras. Graspers are placed in the abdominal cavity through tubes called trocar. A working area is created for the surgeon through the carbon dioxide gas in the abdominal cavity. Specially designed instruments are needed to grasp and manipulate internal organs in laparoscopic surgery. Mechanical stress during laparoscopic surgery may result in unintentional injury in tissues while manipulating them. Recent studies showed that existing grippers used by experts, may cause tissue damage. Surgeons use grippers to grip and manipulate tissue while performing minimally invasive operations. These grippers generally have a toothed profile and require pinching of the tissue to prevent slipping. This also creates a risk of tissue damage. Such a damage is undesirable. A solution must be developed to eliminate this risk. An alternative gripper system is required to manipulate tissues without pinching or even touching them. The aim of this study was to develop non-contact grippers using air based on the Bernoulli principle for gripping and manipulating tissues in laparoscopic surgery. In this study, to prevent gripper-reletad damage, new medical grippers developed by using the Bernoulli principle. An air deflector is used in the gripper to change the flow direction to prevent tissue damage as a result of direct impact of air flow on the grasped tissue. The air flowing through the central channel of the gripper, changes its direction radially through the air deflector before hitting the object. According to the Bernoulli principle, pressure decreases with the increasing air flow rate between the gripper's surface and the object. When this pressure is smaller than the external pressure, the object is pulled towards the gripper's surface. The gripper is designed so that it can be assembled and disassembled and the venturi channels are positioned to have a positive effect on lifting force. Experiments have shown that it is possible to use grippers depending on the Bernoulli principle to grasp flexible tissues.