Bladder obstruction, arising from enlargement of the prostate gland in males, is one of the most common disorders in urology. The prostate gland lies under the bladder and surrounds the passageway known as the prostatic urethra, which transfers fluids from the bladder to the sphincter and ultimately outside the body through the rest of the urethra. An enlarged prostate may constrict the prostatic urethra leading to a condition known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (“BPH”). BPH may cause a variety of obstructive symptoms, including urinary hesitancy, decreased size and force of the urinary stream, bladder calculi, and in extreme cases, complete urinary retention, which may lead to renal failure.
To overcome these and other problems, the enlarged prostate may be surgically removed after severing the gland from the body. One BPH treatment, referred to as enucleation of the prostate, may employ a minimally invasive device, such as a cystoscope or a nephroscope, that may include one or more channels to insert devices such as an incising device, a morcellating device, and/or an extraction device. The incising device, which may include, e.g., a Holmium laser or another mechanical cutting device, may carve out or cut the prostate lobes. The severed prostate lobes/tissues may generally be large, and be pushed or fall into the bladder. Therefore, a morcellating device may be used to fragment the larger tissue pieces to facilitate easier removal of the excised tissue.
Typically, morcellation of a tissue may be accomplished with a mechanical morcellator. A mechanical morcellator may include blades (e.g., attached to a handle) to morcellate the tissue into smaller pieces. A vacuum pump or other source of suction may be connected to the morcellator to provide suction through the blades for suctioning the morcellated tissue pieces out of the bladder. The process may be conducted with saline circulation through the bladder to prevent the bladder walls from collapsing into the morcellator blades.
The morcellation process, as described above, has the possibility of injury to the bladder walls in case the bladder walls come in contact with the morcellator blades. Further, the process of morcellation may be time consuming.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds