CFD Studies on the Modified Laparoscopic Instrument Used in Minimally Invasive Surgeries

Laparoscopic surgery has gained importance over the open-cut surgery in the recent decades. However, multiple insertions are still needed while performing laparoscopic surgery for suction and irrigation which in turn might lead to post-surgical pain and scars over the abdominal region. Our aim is to reduce the number of instruments by creating a modified one which will work both as a flow tube (for suctioning and irrigating purposes) and as a laparoscopic dissector accordingly as per the need of a surgeon. This reduces the time spent in swapping them, thereby contributing to the reduction in surgeon’s effort and time. This paper is based on CFD studies done on the modified laparoscopic instrument which is designed to work both as a suction–irrigation device and as a surgical forceps. Five different pressure differences have been used to study the performance of the new design in terms of the resulting mass flow rate in both suction and irrigation modes.