BRACHYTHERAPY FIDUCIAL NEEDLE FIXATION SYSTEM

• US 20170319871A1
• Filed: 07/21/2017
• Published: 11/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cowles Ventures LLC
• Original Assignee: Breast Microseed, Inc.
• Inventors: PITMAN, Charlie
• Granted Patent: US 10,456,592 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/3403 Needle locating or guiding means guides for suture needles A61B17/0482; guiding or tracking by nuclear magnetic resonance G01R33/285
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/3411 with a plurality of holes, e.g. holes in matrix arrangement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/3908 Soft tissue, e.g. breast tissue
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/3925 ultrasonic
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/3991 having specific anchoring means to fixate the marker to the tissue, e.g. hooks
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/061 Determining position of a probe within the body employing means separate from the probe, e.g. sensing internal probe position employing impedance electrodes on the surface of the body A61B1/00158 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0841 for locating instruments
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/39 Markers, e.g. radio-opaque or breast lesions markers
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/1012 Templates or grids for guiding the introduction of sources
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1007 Arrangements or means for the introduction of sources into the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1015 Treatment of resected cavities created by surgery, e.g. lumpectomy
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1027 Interstitial radiation therapy
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1049 for verifying the position of the patient with respect to the radiation beam

Abstract

A mechanism facilitates the insertion of radioactive sources/source strands into soft tissue, such as breast tissue, that improves the reproducibility of the procedure and ensures that the sources are reliably and consistently inserted in an exact position per a patient prescription treatment plan from patient to patient as well as improve the ease-of-use of the device and procedure.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a mechanism for locking at least one fiducial needle relative to a fixed frame of reference, each fiducial needle having a proximal end being used to locate and fixate tissue into which the fiducial needle is inserted and a distal end being inserted through a grid that fixates the fiducial needle to the fixed frame of reference; and

the grid being attached to the locking mechanism, the grid having a plurality of fiducial needle holes through which the fiducial needles are inserted and a plurality of radioactive source needle holes through which a radioactive needle is capable of being passed into the tissue fixated by the plurality of fiducial needles.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the locking mechanism locks a position of the plurality of fiducial needles relative to the grid while allowing the plurality of radioactive source needles to freely slide relative to the grid.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the locking mechanism further comprises an attachment ball device that threadable attaches the grid, a fiducial needle lock that attaches to the grid and a locking pin that is capable of being tightened using the fiducial needle lock to lock the position of the plurality of fiducial needles relative to the grid.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the grid further comprises a parallelogram array of the radioactive source needle holes and wherein the one or more fiducial needle holes are along a center line of the grid.

5. The device of claim 3, wherein the locking pin further comprises a set of fiducial needle holes through the locking pin wherein a side of each fiducial needle hole is pressed against each of the fiducial needles passing through the locking mechanism when the locking pin is in a locked position, a set of radioactive source needle holes through the locking pin, a set of outer threads that cooperate with the fiducial needle lock to move the locking pin between an unlocked position and the locked position and a set of inner threads that cooperate with the attachment ball device to attach the locking mechanism to the fixed frame of reference.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein each fiducial needle has a visualization feature that is visualized by the an imaging device.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the visualization feature further comprises a recessed portion and a raised portion along a shaft of each fiducial needle.

8. The device of claim 6, wherein each fiducial needle has a shaft portion and the shaft portion has one of a round cross section, a square cross section, a triangular cross section, a hexagonal cross section and an octagonal cross section.

9. The device of claim 6, wherein each fiducial needle further comprises a retention feature that anchors the fiducial needle into a tissue.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the retention feature further comprises one or more user deployable projection that anchors the fiducial needle into the tissue.

11. The device of claim 3 further comprising an engagement device that removable secures the locking mechanism to the fixed frame of reference.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the engagement device further comprises socket portion and wherein the attachment ball device further comprises a ball portion wherein the ball portion is removably inserted into the socket portion to secure the locking mechanism to the fixed frame of reference.