Usage and procedure counter for surgical tools
AssigneeCilag GmbH International
InventorsJohn A. Hibner, Andrew Crews
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of operating a surgical tool includes mounting the surgical tool to a tool driver. The surgical tool includes one or more drive cables movable to actuate an end effector, and one or more segments are defined along a portion of at least one of the one or more drive cables and each segment exhibits a usage value. Usage of the drive cables is monitored with a computer system in communication with the tool driver, and the usage value of one or more of the segments is altered based on usage of the surgical tool.
Claims20
A method of operating a surgical tool, comprising:
- mounting the surgical tool to a tool driver, the surgical tool including a drive cable movable to actuate an end effector, wherein a plurality of discrete segments are defined along a contiguous portion of the drive cable and each segment exhibits a usage value corresponding to a lifetime operational usage of the corresponding segment based at least partially on tensile loading on the drive cable assumed by the corresponding segment;
- monitoring usage of the drive cable with a computer system in communication with the tool driver;
- and
- altering the usage value of at least one of the plurality of discrete segments based on usage of the surgical tool.
A non-transitory medium readable by a processor and storing instructions for execution by the processor for performing a method comprising:
- monitoring usage of a drive cable included in a surgical tool with a computer system, wherein the surgical tool is mounted to a tool driver and a plurality of discrete segments are defined along a contiguous portion of least the drive cable, and wherein each segment exhibits a usage value corresponding to a lifetime operational usage of the corresponding segment based at least partially on tensile loading on the drive cable assumed by the corresponding segment;
- and
- altering the usage value of at least one of the plurality of discrete segments based on usage of the surgical tool.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.