Endoscopic Resection Devices and Related Methods of Use
A tissue resection system includes an endoscope including a stop ring extending about a distal portion thereof; a resection head mounted over the distal portion of the endoscope distally of the stop ring, the resection head including a resection chamber within an outer wall thereof; a first positioning mechanism abutting the stop ring to move the resection head relative to the endoscope between a first position in which a distal end of the resection head is proximal of a distal end of the endoscope and a second position in which the distal end of the resection head is distal of the distal end of the endoscope; and a second positioning mechanism moving a first portion of the outer wall relative to a second portion of the outer wall to open and close the resection chamber.
The present application is a Continuation Application of a U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/332,443 filed Jan. 13, 2006 which is a Continuation Application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/639,229 filed Aug. 12, 2003, entitled “Endoscopic Resection Devices and Related Methods of Use” which is a Divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/939,407, filed Aug. 24, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,632,227, entitled “Endoscopic Resection Devices and Related Methods of Use”. The entire disclosures of these prior patents/applications, are considered as being part of the disclosure of the accompanying application and are hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to full-thickness resection devices (FTRDs) and methods of using such devices to perform localized resections of lesions in organs, for example, substantially tubular organs such as the colon. The present invention has particular application to transanal and transoral surgical procedures, although it is not limited thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
Resection procedures involve excising a portion of an organ, approximating the surrounding tissue together to close up a hole created thereby, and removing any excess tissue caused by the approximation. Various conventional devices and procedures are available for resecting lesions in substantially tubular organs.
For example, several known resection devices and procedures require at least one incision in an area near the portion of the organ to be excised. The incision is required to allow the physician to access the organ section to be excised and guide the device to that section. The incision permits access to the lesion or treatment site for these resection devices which do not have sufficient steering and/or viewing capabilities to appropriately access the site without such a surgical opening thereto. Thus, when an organ section to be excised is beyond the reach of such a device, or the device is not flexible enough to wind through the organ to the site to be excised, an incision will be required to position the device for the procedure. Of course, incisions are traumatic to the patient and may involve a partial or entire loss of mobility to the patient while recuperating from the incision, in addition to recovering from the resection procedure itself. The time required to recover from such a procedure also is often longer than for procedures which do not require incisions.
One type of conventional resection procedure utilizes a circular stapling instrument in which a tubular section of a tubular organ (in other words, a length of the organ) is excised, resulting in the tubular organ being separated into first and second segments. The end sections of the first and second segments are tied closed, in for example a purse-string fashion, and stapled together. The tissue of the “purse-stringed” end sections radially inside the line of staples is then cut off. In this circular anastomosis procedure, at least one separate invasive incision is typically made near the section to be excised in order to cut out the section to be removed and to pursestring the ends of the first and second sections of the organ. Also, a separate incision may be needed to place a first part of the resection device in the first segment and a corresponding second part of the device in the second segment (e.g., anvil in one segment and stapling head in the other) so that the device may bring the first and second segments together and staple them together. Thus, this type of resection procedure involves the drawbacks mentioned above in regard to procedures requiring invasive incisions as well as additional complications resulting from the removal of an entire tubular segment of the organ including, for example the risk of spillage of nonsterile bowel contents into the sterile body cavity, which can cause severe infection and possibly death.
An alternative resection device includes a stapling and cutting assembly on a shaft which can be bent or formed into a desired shape and then inserted into a patient's body cavity. Once the shaft has been bent into the desired shape, the rigidity of the shaft ensures that shape is maintained throughout the operation. This arrangement limits the effective operating range of the device as the bending of the shaft into the desired shape before insertion and the rigidity of the shaft once bent require the physician to ascertain the location of the organ section to be removed before insertion, and deform the shaft accordingly. Furthermore, the rigidity of the shaft makes it difficult to reach remote areas, particularly those areas which must be reached by a winding and/or circuitous route (e.g., the sigmoid colon). Thus, an incision may be required near the organ section to be excised in order to position the device at that organ section.
Furthermore, devices have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,119,913 and 6,126,058 including resectioning means guided through the colon using a flexible endoscope. Although these devices describe the removal of lesions beyond the splenic flexure of the colon, removals in these locations are limited to pendunculated-type polyps a stem of which may be severed by a snare or very small polyp-type tumors that can be removed using what are essentially biopsy devices (limited to mucosal depth only).
To help describe this,
The present invention is directed to a resection head for endoscopic resection of tissue comprising an endoscope receiving channel extending therethrough so that an endoscope may be slidably received therein and a first position adjusting mechanism for moving the resection head relative to an endoscope received in the endoscope receiving channel between a first retracted position in which a distal end of the endoscope extends beyond a distal end of the resection head and a deployed position in which the distal end of the endoscope is received within the endoscope receiving channel. The resection head also comprises a resection chamber within an outer wall of the resection head, at least a first portion of the outer wall being moveable with respect to a second portion thereof to open the resection chamber to an exterior of the resection head and a resection mechanism for resecting tissue received within the resection chamber.
The present invention is also directed to a method of resecting tissue comprising the steps of coupling a distal end of a flexible guide to a desired location on a wall of a body lumen and sliding a resection head coupled to an endoscope over the guide to the desired location, wherein the resection head is coupled to an endoscope with the flexible guide extending outside of the endoscope between an entrance to the body lumen and the desired location. A selected portion of tissue to be resected is then drawn into a resection area of the resection head and resected.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate several embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.
The surgical resection devices according to the present invention will be shown and described with reference to use within the colon. The uses, however, are not so limited, as the devices may be used in various other hollow organs throughout the body, including, for example, the esophagus, stomach, and small bowel.
The present invention provides endoscopic surgical devices and related methods of their use that permit the devices to navigate a tortuous body lumen, including its sharp turns, through the use of a guide, such as a guidewire, for example. Instead of using the body lumen itself to guide the endoscope and resection device, the guidewire may be used to define a path allowing the resection device to navigate sharp turns without impinging upon the wall of the lumen to avoid damage to the organ wall.
A guidewire 40 is anchored to the colon wall 60 in a location near a lesion 50 (shown as a diseased portion of colon wall 60) to be resected. FTRD 20 is capable of resecting a range of lesion types, such as polyps or other types of lesions known to occur in body lumens. FTRD 20 of the current invention may be especially useful in resecting lesions, such as lesion 50, that previously could be removed only using invasive surgical techniques.
In practice, an operator may use a colonoscope (not shown) to navigate to the area of lesion 50, in a conventional fashion as is known in the art. Once the target area has been located using the colonoscope, a guidewire 40 may be inserted therethrough to this target area. Of course, the guidewire 40 may be inserted within the colonoscope as the colonoscope is maneuvered to the target area. However, this may make it more difficult for the operator to freely maneuver the colonoscope along the route to the target area. Preferably, the colonoscope is guided through the colon 10 to the location of lesion 50 and then guidewire 40 is inserted afterwards. Once the operator has located lesion 50 using techniques common with the use of a colonoscope, guidewire 40 may be affixed to the wall of the colon to act as a guide for FTRD 20 to reach the location of lesion 50. Guidewire 40 may be affixed to the colon wall using any suitable fixation device and method known in the art, including, for example, a hook, grasper jaw, suction, staple, or clamp adhesive. Once guidewire 40 has been anchored in place, the colonoscope may be removed.
Then an endoscope 30 with stop ring 31 mounted thereon and the FTRD 20 attached thereto distally of the stop ring 31 is inserted into the colon. A proximal end of the guidewire 40 is inserted into a guidewire channel 41 extending through the FTRD 20 and the operator may then insert the FTRD 20 and endoscope 30 into the colon with the guidewire 40 directing the path of travel as they are slid therealong. FTRD 20 and endoscope 30 may preferably be pushed along the length of the colon with the guidewire 40 defining the path along which they move therethrough. FTRD 20 may also be provided with any suitable, known advancing means to pull FTRD 20 and endoscope 30 along guidewire 40 to the desired location. However, while advancing the endoscope 30 and guidewire 40, tension on the guidewire 40 should be minimized to decrease the risk of inverting the colon.
As shown in
As seen in
Lesion 50 is then drawn into resection chamber 24 by any suitable means known in the art, such as applying suction to draw lesion 50 into resection chamber 24. This is depicted, for example, in an embodiment according to the present invention shown in
Other means for drawing lesion 50 into resection chamber 24 may include a grasper used to grasp guidewire 40 and pull the lesion into chamber 24, or a snare used to grasp a knot or sinker affixed to guidewire 40 and retract lesion 50 into resection chamber 24 by pulling guidewire 40 into resection chamber 24.
Once lesion 50 has been drawn into the chamber 24, arm 25a may be actuated to close resection chamber 24 pinching the tissue surrounding the lesion 50 between the head 21 and the body 22. This tissue is then stapled together so that, when the lesion 50 is resected, the organ remains sealed. After the tissue has been successfully stapled, or otherwise joined together, the lesion and other tissue radially within the line along with the tissue is joined is resected and the FTRD 20 releases the stapled tissue so that the body 22 and the head 21 move to the fully closed position retaining the tissue of the lesion 50 therewithin so that it may be analyzed upon removal from the body.
The resection of the tissue may be performed by any suitable resection mechanism, such as, for example, providing a staple chamber within body 22 and an anvil within head 21 as is in current FTRD's. After resection of lesion 50, the operator may close the resectioning chamber 24 by retracting the arm 25a or 25b and then retract the FTRD 20 distally to the stop ring 31 by drawing the arms 23 back. The FTRD 20, endoscope 30, and guidewire 40 may then be removed from the patient with the resected tissue held in the resection chamber 24.
Head 21 may be made of a transparent material to allow the operator to make position adjustments even after the FTRD 20 has been configured in the deployed position with the distal end 32 of the endoscope 30 retracted therein. To make visual observations of the position of the FTRD 20, the end 32 of endoscope 30 may include light and visualization devices as are known in the art. The steerable and flexible distal tip of the endoscope 30 allows the operator to maneuver the tip look substantially distally through distal end of head 21 or to turn the tip away from a longitudinal axis of the endoscope 30 to view selected portions of the organ wall through the transparent head 21.
In another embodiment according to the present invention as seen in
In another variation on the procedure for using any of the FTRD embodiments, guidewire 40 may be affixed directly to lesion 50. In this scenario, guidewire 40 may be used to pull lesion 50 into resection chamber 24. Once FTRD 20 is in position proximate lesion 50, the operator may pull guidewire 40 proximally into the FTRD 20 thereby drawing the lesion 50 into resection chamber 24. The procedure may then be completed as described above.
Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.
Claims
1-24. (canceled)
25. A tissue resection system, comprising:
- an endoscope including a stop ring extending about a distal portion thereof;
- a resection head mounted over the distal portion of the endoscope distally of the stop ring, the resection head including a resection chamber within an outer wall thereof;
- a first positioning mechanism abutting the stop ring to move the resection head relative to the endoscope between a first position in which a distal end of the resection head is proximal of a distal end of the endoscope and a second position in which the distal end of the resection head is distal of the distal end of the endoscope; and
- a second positioning mechanism moving a first portion of the outer wall relative to a second portion of the outer wall to open and close the resection chamber.
26. The system of claim 25, further comprising a guide channel extending through the resection head, the guide channel sized and shaped to slidably receive a guide element therein.
27. The system of claim 25, further comprising a resection mechanism disposed within the resection chamber.
28. The system of claim 25, further comprising a stapling mechanism disposed within the resection chamber to staple portions of tissue received therein.
29. The system of claim 25, wherein the first positioning mechanism includes a first arm extending from a first end to a second end, the first end of the first arm abutting the stop ring and the second end of the arm movably coupled to the resection head.
30. The system of claim 29, wherein the first arm is hydraulically activated.
31. The system of claim 25, wherein the second positioning mechanism includes a second arm moving the first portion of the outer wall relative to the second portion of the outer wall.
32. The system of claim 31, wherein the second arm is hydraulically activated.
33. The system of claim 31, wherein the second positioning mechanism further includes a spring coupled to the second arm and a locking mechanism to maintain the resection chamber in a closed configuration, the spring biasing the second arm in an open position in which the resection chamber is open.
34. The system of claim 33, wherein the locking mechanism includes a latch.
35. The system of claim 25, further comprising a vacuum channel via which a suctioning force is applied to suction tissue into the resection chamber.
36. The system of claim 25, further comprising a tissue grasper to draw tissue into the resection chamber.
37. The system of claim 25, wherein at least a portion of the resection head is formed of a transparent material.
38. The system of claim 26, further comprising a guide groove connecting the guide channel to an outer periphery of the resection head.
39. A method of resecting tissue, comprising:
- mounting a resection head to a distal portion of an endoscope, the resection head mounted distally of a stop ring extending about the distal portion;
- moving the resection head and the endoscope to a target area within a body lumen;
- moving the resection head distally relative to the resection head from a first position to a second position via a first positioning mechanism, a distal end of the resection head being proximal of a distal end of the endoscope in the first position and the distal end of the resection head being distal of the distal end of the endoscope in the second position;
- moving a first portion of an outer wall of the resection head relative to a second portion of the outer wall via a second positioning mechanism to open and close a resection chamber within the outer wall of the resection head;
- drawing a target tissue into the resection chamber; and
- resecting the target tissue within the resection chamber.
40. The method of claim 39, wherein moving the resection head and endoscope to the target area includes:
- coupling a distal end of a flexible guide element proximate to the target area;
- sliding the resection head and the endoscope over the guide element to the target area, the guide element received within a guide channel of the resection head.
41. The method of claim 39, further comprising stapling portions of the target tissue together prior to resecting the target tissue.
42. The method of claim 40, further comprising moving the resection head past a point at which the guide element is coupled to the target area such that the guide element passes through a guide groove connecting the guide channel to an outer periphery of the resection head.
43. The method of claim 39, wherein the target tissue is drawn into the resection chamber via one of tissue graspers and a suction force.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 16, 2011
Publication Date: May 3, 2012
Inventor: Ronald D. ADAMS (Holliston, MA)
Application Number: 13/328,099
International Classification: A61B 1/00 (20060101);