Biomedical engineering undergraduates at Johns Hopkins have invented a new way to close the chest after heart surgery. It uses polymer cable ties threaded through the ribs in place of steel wires that are used to pierce the breastbone in most operations today.
Neha Malhotra and Chris Weier led a team of Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering students who devised a new way to close a chest after heart surgery. Team members tested the system on a model skeleton (pictured) and studied human anatomy in a cadaver lab.
Here are four views of the tool devised by Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering undergraduates as part of a new system to close the chest after heart surgery. The long extension piece is used to guide a polymer cable tie between and under the ribs so that a surgeon can use it to pull together pieces of the severed sternum.
After the cable tie is looped through the ribs, one end is reinserted in the tool. When the handles are squeezed, it operates like a ratchet to pull pieces of the breastbone firmly together so they can heal.
The student inventors say their cable ties should reduce the risk of injuries that are sometimes caused by the steel wires currently used to close the chest after heart surgery. They recommend the use of a biocompatible polymer material that dissolves harmlessly in the body.