Disclosed herein are devices (e.g., needles (e.g., hollow needles), hollow staples, articles, apparatuses, and systems), kits, and methods for treating skin and skin conditions, for example, by promoting skin tightening, such as by reducing skin laxity and reducing tissue area or volume.

Devices detect and assist in the avoidance of blood vessels during a surgical procedure—to avoid rupturing these blood vessels. Devices may be any penetration sensor device (such as a dilator sensor device, hollow needle sensor device, or trocar sensor device) that penetrates the skin and subcutaneous layers to reach a target location inside the body. The device includes a sensor probe which can make optical measurements to determine various parameters of the tissue at the tip of the sensor probe. These parameters may include an optical signal level returned from tissue contacting the tip of the sensor probe, an oxygen saturation level of the tissue, a total hemoglobin concentration, a blood flow, and a pulse. Based on these parameters, the presence or absence of a blood vessel at the tip of the device can be determined while the device travels towards the target location for surgery.

The invention relates to a surgical apparatus, in particular a navigation probe for localizing and treating lesions in a brain, comprising a telescopically expandable body member having an anterior end, a posterior end, and comprising a top part and a bottom part, the bottom part having at least one groove extending for a particular length in a longitudinal direction of the bottom part between said anterior end and said posterior end, the top part being placed on said bottom part and having at least one engaging element that extends into said at least one groove so as to mount the top part on the bottom part moveable in said longitudinal direction, wherein the body member has a substantially circular or polygonal cross-section in the assembled state of the bottom part and the upper part.

Techniques for aligning a medical instrument for percutaneous access to a location within the human anatomy can include determining an orientation of the medical instrument, determining a target location within the human anatomy, and determining a target trajectory for percutaneous access of the target location. Further, the techniques can include causing display of an interface that includes an instrument-alignment element indicative of an alignment of the orientation of the medical instrument to the target trajectory.

A medical probe for guided insertion into soft tissue, such as the brain, is disclosed. The medical probe may include a flexible, elongated body having a proximal end portion and an opposed distal end portion. The elongated body has a length of at least 1 cm and an outer diameter of 80 μm or less. The distal end portion may comprise a beveled tip such that the distal end portion of the medical probe can be steered independently to a target site in the soft tissue.

A device for securing an ablation tool may have a backbone and a securing portion including a body and a cover, the body slides along the backbone to a lower position and then the cover affixedly receives a head member of the ablation tool. In another version, a leg portion is removably attachable to the securing portion and an upper portion projects out of the opening in the body portion from above and removably attaches to the leg portion that fits into the opening from below. In another version, a rotatable securing portion has a first portion pivotably connected to the leg portion, a second portion affixedly receive the head member when the securing portion rotates closed and a third portion affixedly attaches to the leg portion when the securing portion rotates closed. If the head member does not fit with the cover, a one-piece or two-piece adaptor is used.

A surgical stapling system includes an adapter assembly, a trocar assembly attachable to the adapter assembly, a processor, and memory. The memory includes instructions executable by the processor to cause the trocar assembly to move relative to the adapter assembly and determine whether the trocar assembly is properly attached to the adapter assembly. Such determination is based on an amount of force applied between the trocar assembly and the adapter assembly, an amount of current detected in the surgical stapling system, or an amount of time the trocar assembly moves relative to the adapter assembly without an indication that the amount of force is within a predetermined range.

A system and method for providing relative positional information of a therapeutic or diagnostic device during the treatment of urinary tract diseases and conditions.

Disclosed is a guide or alignment system. The system may be used to at least assist in a procedure. The system may assist in aligning objects and/or determining physical boundaries for a selected portion of the procedure.

An ultrasound-imaging system includes an ultrasound probe and a console. The ultrasound probe includes (i) an array of ultrasonic transducers, activated ultrasonic transducers of the array of ultrasonic transducers configured to emit generated ultrasound signals into a patient, receive reflected ultrasound signals from the patient, and convert the reflected ultrasound signals into corresponding electrical signals of the ultrasound signals for processing into an ultrasound image, and (ii) a secondary data collection module. The console includes one or more processors and a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon logic, when executed by the one or more processors, causes operations that can include: receiving and processing the electrical signals to generate the ultrasound image, receiving secondary data from the secondary data collection module, wherein the secondary data is data other than the electrical signals corresponding to reflected ultrasound signals, and providing a notification to administrator that includes the secondary data.