{"id":10593,"date":"2025-04-23T14:28:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T18:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/designcenter\/?p=10593"},"modified":"2025-05-28T11:10:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T15:10:23","slug":"improved-reliability-suture-passer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/designcenter\/2025\/04\/23\/improved-reliability-suture-passer\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Spotlight: Improved Reliability Suture Passer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Team Members: Lautaro Alvarez, Justin Lee, Manning MacAvoy, Emi Pinto  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Department: Mechanical Engineering<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our project aims to improve Tigon Medical\u2019s suture passer by reducing jaw friction and optimizing needle geometry, increasing rotator cuff tissue puncture reliability and reducing surgeon hand strain during rotator cuff repairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suture passers are essential tools in arthroscopic rotator cuff repairs, significantly affecting surgical efficiency and outcomes. Tigon Medical\u2019s suture passer, sometimes fails to puncture the rotator cuff tissue, requiring repeated attempts or even pre-mature needle replacement. Our project addresses these challenges by redesigning key components\u2014specifically, reducing friction in the lower jaw member and optimizing needle geometry\u2014to increase force transmission and decrease the required puncture force. These improvements directly contribute to more reliable tissue penetration and reduced hand strain, allowing surgeons to perform suture passing more efficiently and comfortably. The enhancements minimize procedure delays, lower operating costs, and ultimately support better patient outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our project aims to improve Tigon Medical\u2019s suture passer by reducing jaw friction and optimizing needle geometry, increasing rotator cuff tissue puncture reliability and reducing surgeon hand strain during rotator cuff repairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":10710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,14,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-day-news","category-news","category-project-spotlight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nProject Spotlight: Improved Reliability Suture Passer - Johns Hopkins University Engineering Design Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/designcenter\/2025\/04\/23\/improved-reliability-suture-passer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Project Spotlight: Improved Reliability Suture Passer - 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