A Micro Surgical Instrument for Age Related Macular Degeneration

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is a degenerative condition of the macula, which results in a loss of vision. AMD is a common contributor to vision loss in adults over the age of 50. In Western countries, AMD affects nearly 30% of the individuals over the age of 75. In the Rotterdam Eye Hospital an experimental surgical procedure has been developed to cure patients suffering from this disease. However there are still various problems associated with it. This thesis presents an instrument prototype, to be used in this surgical procedure, which would overcome these shortcomings. The working principle of the instrument presented is the “Indirect Heat Induced Attachment and Detachment (HIAD)” principle which has been developed at the BioMedical Engineering Department, at Faculty of 3mE, TU Delft. It is a heat based principle in which short heat pulses are used to attach/detach a tissue graft during the surgical procedure. During the course of this thesis, the feasibility of a micro machined device (based on the HIAD Principle) is tested. Numerical simulations have been done to understand what happens when heat pulses are given by a heater placed on the instrument to penetrate into the tissue. Tissue damage due to heat is a major concern and is studied in further detail through these simulations. The instrument is then fabricated using a modified Flex-to-Rigid (F2R) foil technology. Polymer foils fabricated by the F2R technology are extremely thin and would require reinforcement to be suitable for this project. Two methods to provide reinforcement are suggested: inclusion of polyimide beams in various patterns and free standing silicon beams inside polyimide columns. The idea of having polyimide beams to reinforce the foils has been successfully demonstrated by fabricating a number of samples. Tests have been done to check the effectiveness of this method. The idea of including silicon beams inside the polyimide beams could not be realized successfully. Suggestions are given as to how this can be proceeded with.

Subject

Microfabrication

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Student theses

Document type

master thesis

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Thesis_Report.pdf

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