Surgical apparatus for transanal endoscopic microsurgery

What is this patent about?

’362 is related to the field of minimally invasive surgery, specifically transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM). In these procedures, surgeons insert long instruments and an endoscope through a natural orifice to reach an internal operation site. Traditional TEM devices often require the surgeon to reposition the entire patient or detach the device from its rigid fixing frame to adjust the viewing angle or reach different areas of the anatomy, which can be cumbersome and disruptive to the surgical workflow.

The underlying idea behind ’362 is to decouple the rotation of the surgical instruments and the guide barrel from the endoscope’s visual field. By placing the endoscope outside the main barrel and allowing the barrel to rotate independently of the endoscope’s fixed orientation, the inventor ensures that the surgeon’s visual horizon remains stable even when the working channel is rotated to reach a new area. This design also allows for a slimmer barrel profile, reducing the risk of trauma to the patient’s anus while maintaining a wide range of motion for the instruments.

The claims of ’362 focus on a surgical apparatus comprising a main body with separate ports for an endoscope and surgical instruments, where the instrument port can rotate independently of the endoscope port. A rotary part connects the main body to a barrel, allowing the barrel to rotate integrally with the instruments. Crucially, the independent claims specify a configuration where the endoscope is routed to the exterior of the barrel, while the surgical instruments are housed within the barrel’s internal guide path.

In practice, the device uses a multi-component main body featuring a housing, a tool insertion part, and a dedicated surgical instrument insertion part. The rotary part at the front end includes a rotation angle adjustment unit, such as a click-ball or ring mechanism, which provides tactile feedback and allows the surgeon to adjust the barrel’s orientation in precise, stepped increments. The barrel itself features a specialized tip with an inclined opening surface and an enlarged lower area, which maximizes the working space for instruments despite the reduced diameter of the main tube.

This approach differs from prior solutions where the endoscope and instruments were typically crowded together inside a single large-diameter barrel. In those conventional designs, rotating the barrel would cause the endoscope screen to spin, forcing the surgeon to constantly re-orient their visual field. By routing the endoscope through an external guide groove and allowing the instrument port to pivot separately, the invention provides a stable, non-rotating visual field and a more ergonomic, interference-free environment for manipulating surgical tools during complex transanal procedures.