抄録
Today, the demand for thinner instruments for endoscopic surgery, including fetal and single-port surgeries, has been increasing since thinner instruments reduce the invasiveness of endoscopic procedures, improve the applicability of endoscopy, and promote the development of new devices for new procedures. However, the thinner the instruments, the smaller their end effectors, which severely limits their functionality such as difficulty of grasping organs, risk of damage to organs because of sharp tip. Therefore, this study aim to develop instruments that become sophisticated within body cavities. We developed a novel design for a pair forceps-a least-incision transformable end-effector (LITE) mechanism is used to transform the instrument into a larger end effector inside the body. The diameter of first prototype LITE mechanism is 8 mm. In this paper, we describe new LITE mechanism for 5 mm diameter forceps.
