Microsurgical Tools for Self-healing Incisions

microsurgical tool

Working with colleagues in the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Professor Mary Frecker is designing a new generation of microsurgical instruments to help overcome the limitations in today's design and manufacture of minimally invasive surgical tools. "There is a need for multifunctional instruments that are an order of magnitude smaller than current instruments. We're talking about a tiny scissors-forceps that can be used, for example, in surgery on the retina. With an instrument that size, you can do sutureless surgery, self-healing incisions."

In minimally invasive surgery, surgeons use a host of instruments which are continually inserted and removed. During each instrument exchange, there is a risk of inadvertent tissue damage that may cause the patient to bleed internally. In addition, frequent instrument exchanges tend to disrupt the surgeon’s concentration.

To create small enough instruments for use in flexible endoscopy, around .5 mm in diameter, Frecker worked with materials scientist James Adair, who developed a method of gel casting pure zirconium nanoparticles that can be cast in a mold and sintered on a chip. After the instruments are hardened, they are sealed and coated with gold palladium using sputter coating techniques. The result is sub 100 micron surgical tools with small feature size and sharp edges.

Mary Frecker, Ph.D., Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering. James Adair, Ph.D., Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Randy Haluck, MD, director of the Minimally Invasive Surgery Program at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

This research brief was featured in the brochure Biomedical Materials.