The Ultrasonic Trocar Provides an Easy, Sharp, Bloodless, and Repeatable Approach to the Abdominal Cavity

Reusable trocars have the advantage of being more cost-effective than disposable trocars. However, the reusable trocar does lose its sharpness on insertion with repetitive insertion. Nonreusable trocars are expensive, but the sharpness of the knife facilitates insertion. Nonreusable trocars have a safety shield system designed to decrease abdominal organ injury, though the potential problem of bleeding from the abdominal wall port site has yet to be resolved. We therefore developed a novel ultrasonic vibrating trocar that does not lose its sharpness even with repetitive insertion. This trocar prevents bleeding by means of an ultrasonic cavitation effect. The ultrasonic vibrating trocar has the advantage of ease of insertion, and the force required for new reusable trocar insertion was only 34% of the force required for insertion of commercially available nonreusable trocars. The force required for multiply used conventional reusable ultrasonic vibrating trocar insertion, ie, 900 insertions, was maintained at less than 46% of the force required by the corresponding nonreusable trocars. Bleeding from the abdominal wall was prevented by an ultrasonic cavitation effect.