Soft Tool for Gallbladder Retraction in Minimally Invasive Surgery Based on Layer Jamming

Gallbladder diseases are the most common health problems in developed societies, affecting a large part of the adult population. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the elective surgical procedure for gallbladder pathologies. Despite the high number of procedures performed each year and the limited complication rate, the retraction of the liver remains the most important issue to be improved during a laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Being the gallbladder anatomically fixed under the liver, the surgeon has to move hepatic portions and has to stably retract this organ during the whole procedure. In order to overcome the limitations related to modern surgical tools for tissue retraction in minimally invasive procedures, we propose here an innovative system composed by a soft band that exploits the layer jamming phenomenon, for assuring a proper stiffness variation and guaranteeing a stable liver retraction. Design, material characterization (both external membrane and internal layer material) and ex-vivo assessment in simulated laparoscopic regime have been performed for validating this concept: promising results have been obtained, thus opening the way for further investigations.