A guide hole structure can include a body defining one or more guide holes through the body between a first surface and a second surface. The guide hole structure can include one or more contact area reducing features forming and/or extending from an inner surface of the body to form the one or more guide holes. The one or more contact area reducing features can be configured to reduce a contact area of a shaft inserted into and/or through the one or more guide holes.

A cannula for transferring a substance to and/or from a patient includes a rigid, tubular support sleeve, an inner sleeve, a transfer tube, and a conformal polymeric sleeve. The support sleeve defines a support sleeve lumen extending from a first opening at a proximal end of the support sleeve to a second opening at a distal end of the support sleeve. The support sleeve includes a rigid, MRI-compatible material. The inner sleeve is disposed in the support sleeve lumen and extends beyond the distal end of the support sleeve to a distal end of the inner sleeve. The inner sleeve defines an inner sleeve lumen. The transfer tube is disposed in the inner sleeve lumen and extends to or beyond the distal end of the inner sleeve to a distal end of the transfer tube. The transfer tube defines a transfer tube lumen terminating at an opening at the distal end of the transfer tube. The conformal polymeric sleeve surrounds at least a portion of the support sleeve and at least a portion of the inner sleeve. The conformal polymeric sleeve includes a transitional section extending from the distal end of the support sleeve and over the inner sleeve in a direction toward the distal end of the inner sleeve. The transitional section tapers inwardly in the direction toward the distal end of the inner sleeve.

A suture anchor apparatus comprising: an anchoring member made from a metal-based material and comprising a generally elongated body having a proximal end and a distal end, wherein an outer surface of the anchoring member defines a threading that winds around the body in a plurality of turns disposed along a longitudinal axis of the body; wherein the threading has a depth of about 1 mm and a pitch of about 3 mm, and an eyelet disposed near the distal end and penetrating transversely through the body.

Stepper motor with a housing 1,2,4,6,16, in which a cylindrical rotor 11,15 fixed on a central shaft 12 can rotate but not translate along an axial direction. There are cylindrical translators 9, 14 on both sides of the rotors 11, 15, where the translators 9, 14 are sealed fit in a cylindrical space within the housing 6 and around the central shaft 12 and where the translators 9, 14 can only translate in an axial direction, where in one axial position of a translator 9, 14 a set of triangular asymmetric teeth 20 located on the translator 9, 14 can interact and fit into a set of triangular asymmetric teeth 21 on the rotor 11, 15, where the shape of the teeth 21 on both sides of the rotor 11, 15 is symmetric and where one of the sets of teeth 20, 21 between one translator 9 (14) and the rotor 11 (15) and a set of teeth 20, 21 between the other translator 9 (14) and the rotor 11 (15) are tangentially shifted, i.e. offset over a length equal to half the width of a tooth 20, 21 and where the translators 9, 14 can be moved by a pressure difference between the part of the cylindrical space between the housing 6 and a translator 9, 14 and the part of the cylindrical space between the translator 9, 14 and the rotor 11, 15.

A head-holder support for attaching a medical head-holder to a patient table is provided that has a rigid base body, an adjustable and lockable head-holder interface at the base body, which is adapted to adjustably couple the head-holder to the base body by providing at least three degrees of freedom for the spatial relative position between the head-holder and the base body, wherein the at least three degrees of freedom are lockable so as to establish a rigid coupling between the head-holder and the base body, and at least one robotic arm interface at the base body, which is adapted to provide a rigid coupling between a robotic arm and the base body.

Systems and methods for transferring fluid to or from a subject use a set of MRI compatible components that can aspirate intrabody structure and/or fluids. The components include a device guide, a semi-rigid guide sheath configured to slidably extend through the device guide, a stylet releasable coupled to the guide sheath and extending a fixed distance out of a distal end thereof, and a cannula coupled to flexible tubing that is releasably interchangeably held in the guide sheath in lieu of the stylet.

According to an aspect of the invention there is provided a joint distractor, including: a stationary portion configured to fix a first body portion on a first side of a body joint, and an extendable portion configured to be urged against a second body portion on a second side of the body joint, and wherein extension of the extendable portion urges the extendable portion onto the second body portion away from the first body portion thereby forming a gap between articulating surfaces of the first and second body portions within the joint.

A biopsy needle has a cylindrical shell outer cannula and a stylet consisting of an inner stylet and outer stylet, both of which are inserted into the cylindrical cannula. The outer stylet has a series of strain relieved slits which provide bending over a deflection region in one direction, and the outer stylet is formed from a material such as a shape memory alloy (SMA) having a superelastic phase. The deflection is generated by an SMA wire spanning a deflection extent and attached to the outer stylet on either side of the deflection extent. The inner stylet, when positioned inside the outer stylet, has one or more actuation fibers which couple optical energy into the SMA wire or hollow SMA tube, causing a deflection of the outer stylet over the deflection extent, with the optical energy provided to the actuation fibers for control of the deflection. Additional fibers may be placed in the inner stylet to measure temperature and to measure deflection.

Surgical systems and methods for an MRI suite include a housing residing in an MRI scanner room of the MRI suite. The housing comprises a plurality of motors coupled to at least one motor driver (in the same or a different housing); and a plurality of elongate cables, one coupled to one of the plurality of motors residing in the same housing or a different housing. The elongate cables comprise MRI compatible material and having a length in a range of about 24 inches and 60 inches. One of the cables couples to one of the motors at a first end portion and a corresponding one actuator of the actuators of a trajectory guide at a second end portion.

Devices for transferring fluid to or from a subject include a plunger assembly coupled to or coupleable to a cannula assembly to allow target fluid to be “front-loaded” into a distal end of the cannula assembly while the stylet is withdrawn a distance to create a vacuum and define a flow channel.