PRESSR SYSTEM: FORCE SENSING AT THE RETRACTOR TISSUE INTERFACE

Abstract

When performing surgical procedures, surgeons will commonly use self-retaining retractors in order to facilitate visualization of the surgical field without the need for an assistant to retract the soft tissues. One potential complication of using self-retaining retractors is that excessive pressure can be applied to the soft tissues for extended periods of time. This can lead to nerve compression injuries that can cause pain and functional problems for patients. This project aims to design a self-retaining retractor system that can measure pressure at the retainer-tissue interface to mitigate the risk of injury. The system as outlined by the project sponsor, Dr. David Margolis, is designed to sense the pressure applied to soft tissue by self-retaining retractors and output the data in a user friendly manner. This equipment alerts the surgeon if excessive pressure is applied to minimize the chances of irreversible damage to nearby nervous tissue. Clinically, this problem is significant, as 10-40% of patients experience chronic neuropathic pain from general surgical procedures. Currently, there are no studies on the effects of pressure applied by self-retaining retractors on humans, so this system would be used to record the pressure and time to determine the effect of excessive pressure on soft tissue in subsequent research applications and then be applied in the clinical setting to reduce injury risk.