JPH0571256B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to an eyeless suture needle for surgery, and more particularly to an eyeless suture needle constructed by welding a pipe to a needle body.

<Prior art> Traditionally, eyed needles with a through hole perpendicular to the needle axis were developed as surgical suture needles. Eyeless suture needles have appeared in which a thread attachment hole is drilled in the direction of the needle axis at the proximal end of the needle.

There are two types of eyeless suture needles: hole-type drilled needles and channel-type channel needles.These eyeless suture needles have been made into fine diameter needles due to the development of laser processing. Techniques for producing drilled needles with small diameter holes had also been developed.

On the other hand, as shown in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 28-3184, a technique was also developed in which an eyeless suture needle was constructed by integrally welding a pipe having a notch at the proximal end of the needle body.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, in the above-mentioned eyeless suture needle, it is possible to manufacture a fine needle with a certain degree of fine hole diameter by using laser processing, etc., as described above. However, recently in neurosurgery, for example, a needle body with a micro diameter of 0.07 mm is machined with a micro hole diameter of 0.03 mm, and a needle body with a diameter of 0.24 mm is machined with a micro hole diameter of 0.15 mm. Even if free-cutting steel, which is easy to cut, was used, it was extremely difficult to machine a thin hole where the ratio of the hole diameter to the needle diameter was large.

On the other hand, as mentioned above, there is a technique to construct an eyeless suture needle by integrally welding a pipe to the end surface of the needle body, but this technique does not cause burrs to form on the inner and outer circumferential surfaces of the welded part, or Welding defects may occur due to the difference in the cross-sectional area of the welded surfaces of the materials to be welded.Furthermore, the airless suture needle to which this pipe is welded may crack and break during use during surgery, or the welded portion may break. Many problems have occurred, such as sharp bends and cracks in the crimped parts.

The reason why this welded part cracks and breaks as described above is because only the welded part between the pipe and the needle body is softer than other parts, so bending concentrates on this welded part during use, and the 20 to 30 It has been found that even a small bend of about 100 degrees can cause a crack in the weld and cause it to break, or if the pipe is bent at a steep angle, or because the connected pipe is hard, cracks can occur during caulking.

The eyeless suture needle according to the present invention is a completely new invention developed in view of these conventional problems.

<Means for Solving the Problems> The present invention provides an eyeless needle constructed by welding one end surface of a non-quench hardenable stainless steel pipe to the base end of a non-quench hardenable stainless steel needle. There,
This surgical eyeless suture needle is characterized in that the area around the welded part is made softer than other parts so that the hardness is close to that of the welded part.

<Function> As described above, in the eyeless suture needle according to the present invention, the area around the welded part between the pipe and the needle body is made softer than the other parts, so that the hardness approaches the hardness of the welded part. When using an eyeless suture needle, it is possible to prevent bending stress from concentrating only on this welded part, and to distribute the bending stress around the welded part, thereby preventing cracks and breakage in the welded part. Alternatively, it is possible to prevent a sharp bend from occurring only in this part, and furthermore, when a suture thread is inserted into a hole and crimped, it is possible to prevent a crack from occurring in this crimped part. .

<Example> First, the present inventor solved many of the problems of the prior art described above as follows.

In other words, the problem of frequent defective products and high costs caused by drilling holes at the base end of needles with minute diameters or holes is to be solved by welding a pipe with pre-holes to the needle body. Many of the problems that occur when welding the pipe to the needle body can be solved by manufacturing an eyeless needle by irradiating the welded part with a laser beam under specific conditions. Since the inventions related to these issues will be filed separately from the present patent application, a detailed explanation of this point will be omitted.

Next, regarding the present invention, which solves the problems of cracks occurring in the welded portion of the pipe and the needle body, resulting in breakage, the welded portion being bent at a sharp angle, or cracks occurring in the caulked portion of the suture thread. The details are as follows.

First, the needle body and pipe that constitute the eyeless suture needle of the present invention are made of SUS302, SUS304, and SUS304, respectively.
Stainless steel materials such as SUS316 and SUS631 can be used, and the needle body and the pipe do not need to be made of the same material.

Next, as shown in FIG.
After producing an eyeless suture needle by welding the welded parts 3 of both parts using stainless steel using laser light, the needle body 1, pipe 2, and welded part 3 of the suture needle are assembled.
When the hardness of the needle body 1 was measured, the hardness of the needle body 1 was
HV380-480, the hardness of pipe 2 is HV250-400, while the hardness of welded part 3 is HV150-250, indicating that only welded part 3 is significantly softer than the other parts. It became clear. This is because in order to weld the needle body 1 and the pipe 2, the laser beam is irradiated onto this welded part 3 to melt and soften this part.

However, when a suture needle having the above-mentioned hardness is used in surgery, or when the needle body 1 and pipe 2
If the welded part 3 is bent by gripping the
As shown in the figure, even when bent at an angle of about 20 to 30 degrees, the bending stress concentrates on the soft welded part 3, and the crack 4 can enter this part and break, or the welded part 3 can easily bend at a steep angle. It became clear that the situation would bend.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 7, when the suture needle 5 is inserted into the pipe hole of the suture needle and crimped, a crack 7 occurs in the crimped part 6 because the welded part 3 is soft and the other parts are hard. It also became clear that

Therefore, in order to solve this problem mentioned above, the present inventor has developed an eyeless suture needle constructed by welding the needle body 1 and the pipe 2 at the welding part 3 as described above, as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, a burner 8 of propane gas or the like was used, and the flame 9 of the burner 8 was used to heat and soften the area around the welded part 3 of the suture needle and almost the entire pipe 2 at about 1000°C. As shown, the hardness around the welded part 3 and the entire pipe 2 is
We were able to configure it to be flexible between HV200 and 280.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG.
0 was defocused and irradiated around the welded part 3 and the pipe 2 to heat and soften this part to the extent that it did not melt, and as a result, results similar to those obtained when using the burner 8 described above were obtained. When the suture needle constructed in this manner is used in a surgery as described above, or when the needle body 1 and the pipe 2 are held and bent, the area near the welded portion 3 will be removed as shown in FIG. The whole curves in an R shape, but cracks occur in the welded part 3,
Alternatively, when the welded portion 3 was bent at a steep angle, and furthermore, when the pipe 2 was caulked to attach the suture thread, the aforementioned cracks did not occur at the caulked portion.

Furthermore, as described above, the suture needle according to the present invention has a soft caulking part, so the caulking work is easy, and since the caulking part meshes well with the suture thread, thread attachability can be significantly improved. .

In the above embodiment, the entire pipe 2 in addition to the area around the welded portion 3 was softened by heating, but it is not necessary to soften the entire pipe 2, and in particular, the hole entrance portion may be excluded.

Furthermore, in the present invention, the needle body 1 and the pipe 2 are made of stainless steel because stainless steel has excellent corrosion resistance, and stainless steel that is not hardened by quenching has very good weldability. This is because it has a feature that the area around the welded part 3 can be heated and softened after welding. In particular, when a material that hardens by quenching is used, the thin needle that is the object of the present invention will harden due to the heating during welding and the cooling effect in the air, and the welded part will become too hard and brittle. This is because there is a risk of it breaking easily.
Although it is possible to prevent the quenching effect by using a material that hardens by quenching and slowly cooling this part after welding or heat softening, it is possible to prevent the quenching effect by using a material that hardens by quenching. In the case of welding or heat softening, such slow cooling is almost impossible.

<Effects of the Invention> Since the eyeless suture needle according to the present invention has the structure and function as described above, the area around the welded portion is configured to have a softness similar to that of the welded portion, so that bending stress is not applied to the suture needle during use. It can completely prevent the welding part of the suture needle from cracking and breaking, or from bending at a sharp angle, and makes it easy to swage to attach the suture thread. At the same time, it is possible to prevent cracks from occurring in this caulked part, and furthermore, it is possible to firmly engage the suture thread and the caulked part to improve thread attachment performance, and it can be processed at low cost with simple work. It has the following characteristics.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the suture needle according to the present invention, Figs. 2 and 3 are explanatory diagrams showing the manufacturing process thereof, Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the suture needle in a bent state, and Figs. The figure is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional example. 1 is the needle body, 2 is the pipe, 3 is the welded part, 4, 7
5 is a crack, 5 is a thread, 6 is a caulking part, 8 is a burner, 9 is a flame, and 10 is a laser beam.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a surgical eyeless needle constructed by welding one end surface of a high-hardness austenitic stainless steel pipe to the base end of a high-hardness austenitic stainless steel needle, the portion around the welded portion in the axial direction 1. A surgical eyeless suture needle, characterized in that the needle is softened to have a hardness close to that of the welded portion.