Patent Application
20220031316
The present invention relates to a suture for plastic surgery, and in particular, to a suture and a manufacturing of the suture.
Due to aging and the effect of gravity, skin aging phenomena, such as wrinkles, crow's fee or nasolabial folds etc., becomes more prominent. If the skin aging condition is not obvious, it can be adjusted through extensive care or beautification therapy. However, if the aging condition is relatively more prominent such that extensive skin sagging occurs, then it is necessary to improve such condition through face lift operation. Although traditional face lift operation is able to improve the sagging and slacking due to skin aging, the drawbacks of general anesthesia process, slow post-surgical recovery time and scars left after the surgery etc. are often concerned by the people such that they tend to become reluctant in receiving the surgical operation despite the positive outcome of face lift operation.
To overcome various drawbacks associated with the traditional face lift operation, presently, a known face lift technique is to embed one or a plurality of suture equipped with hooks in the Subcutaneous tissue via injection needle in order to allow the suture to retain sagging dermis, thereby achieving the face lift effect. Since the entire treatment process, in comparison to the traditional face lift operation, results in relatively smaller wound and shorter recovery time in addition to that the surgical process does not require general anesthesia and post-surgical scars can also be prevented greatly. Consequently, such surgical operation provides a safer method to potential patients.
With regard to traditional sutures, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,975,332 discloses a technique of using a knife to cut out a plurality of hooks at the outer circumferential surface of a suture via a slanted cutting method. Nevertheless, the contact surface between the hooks formed via such method and the dermis is extremely limited and the retaining effect is insufficient. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2013/0226234A1 discloses that a suture core is a knitted core; however, since the dimension of a suture is extremely small, the knitting technique for the internal suture core requires much higher cost and longer manufacturing time. Taiwan Patent No. I692344 discloses a suture comprising a core, an intermediate layer covering the core and an outer layer covering the intermediate layer. The intermediate layer is able to reduce the structural damage caused by the rapid changes of strength and elasticity due to material difference. Nevertheless, the outer circumferential surface of the intermediate layer is smooth such that the bonding strength between the intermediate layer and the outer layer is poor. Consequently, it is likely to cause twisting, leading to angular of depth errors, during the cutting of the outer layer. In addition, when such suture is embedded into the subcutaneous tissue, it is also likely to affect the tension of the entire structure; therefore, there is a need for improvement.
A primary objective of the present invention is to provide a suture capable of increasing the contact surface between the suture and the skin, reducing the cutting angle of the knife and increasing the overall structural strength.
To achieve the aforementioned primary objective, the present invention provides a suture comprising a cord member a plurality of protruding members. The cord member includes a core and an outer layer covering the core. An outer circumferential surface of the core includes a plurality of protrusions, and the plurality of protrusions are arranged in a ring shape relative to a center of the core. An outer circumferential surface of the outer layer includes a plurality of cutting slots, the plurality of cutting slots are arranged spaced apart from each other along an axial direction of the cord member, and the plurality of cutting slots extend in a spiral shape relative to the axial direction of the cord member respectively. The plurality of protruding members are arranged to protrude on an outer circumferential surface of the cord member and each one of the protruding members is integrally connected to a root portion of one of the cutting slots of the cord member and extends in a spiral shape relative to the axial direction of the cord member. In addition, a helix angle of each one of the protruding members is equal to a helix angle of one of the cutting slots of the cord member. The two helix angles can be adjusted arbitrarily depending upon the actual needs in practice.
Preferably, a ratio of a depth of each one of the cutting slots to a diameter of the cord member is between 0.05˜0.5, a ratio of a length of each one of the cutting slots to a diameter of the cord member is between 0.2˜2, a cutting angle of each one of the cutting slots is between 5 degrees˜60 degrees, and a ratio of a distance between the two adjacent cutting slots to a diameter of the cord member is between 0.1˜10.
Preferably, each one of the protrusions extends in a linear shape or a spiral shape along an axial direction of the core.
Preferably, a cross sectional shape of each one of the protrusions is a curved shape or a polygonal shape, allowing the core to have a non-circular appearance. Consequently, the contact surface area between the core and the outer layer can be increased and the strength of the contact interface can be enhanced. During the manufacturing, it is also able to reduce the twisting and deformation of the material, and the cutting related angles and dimensions can be more properly controlled.
In addition, the present invention further provides a manufacturing of the aforementioned suture. First, a knife is used to cut into the outer layer of the cord member from the outer circumferential surface of the outer layer of the cord member at an inclination angle. Next, the cord member is moved along the axial direction of the cord member and the cord member is rotated about the axial direction of the cord member as a center thereof during the movement, thereby allowing the outer circumferential surface of the outer layer of the cord member to be cut out of one of the protrusions by the knife. Finally, the knife is removed, allowing the outer circumferential surface of the outer layer of the cord member to form one of the cutting slots at a cutting area of the knife. Subsequently, the cord member can be rotated to a predefined angle or rotate in a reverse direction at an identical angle depending upon the actual needs. Then, the aforementioned steps can be repeated to perform the subsequent cutting and processing.
Preferably, a first material is poured into a first channel of a mold in order to form the core, and a second material is poured into a second channel of the mold in order to form the outer layer. Extrusion formation method is performed on the first material and the second material in a third channel of the mold in order to form the cord member.
From the above, it can be understood that the suture of the present invention utilizes the plurality of protrusions to increase the bonding between the core and the outer layer, and the material twisting can be reduced during the spiral cutting. Furthermore, the plurality of protrusions are used to increase the contact surface with the skin, such that it is able to achieve the effects of reducing the cutting angle and increasing the structural strength.
The detailed structure, features, assembly of the suture and the manufacturing method for the suture or the method of use thereof provided by the present invention are described in the following embodiments and detailed description. Nevertheless, a person with ordinarily skilled in the art in the technical field of the present invention shall understand that such detailed description and the specific embodiments exemplarily described in the present invention are provided to illustrate the present invention only such that they shall not be used to limit the claim scope of the present invention.
First, the applicant emphasizes that in this specification, including the embodiments described below and the content defined in the scope of the claims, direction related terms are described based on the directions illustrated in the drawings. Secondly, in the embodiments and drawings described in the following, identical component signs represent identical or similar components or structural features thereof.
As shown in
The cord member 20 includes a core 21 and an outer layer 23 covering the core 21. As shown in
As shown in
Furthermore, it shall be noted that the configuration of the protrusion 22 can have different variations. For example, the cross sectional shape of the protrusion 22 can be, such as, a curved triangular shape as shown in
As shown in
In addition, it shall be noted that in this embodiment, the plurality of cutting slots 24 are arranged in pairs in order to be spaced apart from each other along the axial direction A of the cord member 20. In other words, each pair of cutting slots 24 are spaced apart from each other by 180 degrees. However, in practice, the plurality of cutting slots 24 arranged in a ring shape with the axial direction A of the cord member 20 as a center thereof can be adjusted between 0˜360 degrees depending upon the actual needs. Furthermore, the two adjacent cutting slots 24 can also be arranged to face toward each other or in an alternating manner.
The plurality of protruding members 30 protrude on the outer circumferential surface of the outer layer 23 of the cord member 20 and adopt the method of one-to-one to be integrally connected to the root portion 25 of the plurality of cutting slots 24 respectively. In addition, as shown in
In addition, the plurality of protruding members 30 are formed simultaneously during the process when the plurality of cutting slots 24 are cut out on the outer circumferential surface of the outer layer 23. To be more specific, the manufacturing method of the present invention mainly comprises the following steps:
a) As shown in Step S2 of
b) As shown in Step S3 of
c) As shown in Step S4 of
After the first cutting slot 24 is formed completely, the cord member 20 can be subsequently moved or rotated depending upon the actual needs. For example, the cord member 20 can be moved based on a separation distance between two adjacent cutting slots 24 at the front or rear or the cord member 20 can be rotated by an angle between two vertical adjacent cutting slots 24 relative to the axis of the cord member 20, following which the aforementioned steps S1˜S4 can be repeated in order to complete the manufacturing of the suture 10.
In view of the above, the suture 10 of the present invention utilizes the plurality of protrusions 22 to increase the bonding between the core 21 and the outer layer 23. In addition, during the spiral cutting, material twisting can be reduced. Furthermore, the plurality of protruding members 30 are further utilized to increase the contact surface with the skin, and the cutting angle can be reduced, thereby allowing the spiral protruding members 30 to have a strong root portion 25 in order to achieve the effect of increasing the structural strength.
