For those of us who remember Capri Suns, we undoubtedly recall struggling to insert the straw without piercing the back of the pouch. Believe it or not, the same thing occurs in surgery, according to Nikolai Begg, and it’s been a problem for over a century.
Begg, who just received a Ph.D in mechanical engineering from MIT, shared his invention that aims to greatly reduce that risk of vessel and organ puncture during medical procedures in a “10 Minutes to Change the World” presentation at FORBES’ first-ever “Under 30 Summit.”
He got his start thinking about laparoscopic -- or minimally invasive -- surgeries, where doctors perform surgeries through small incisions for tools and cameras rather than traditional, large incisions. Surgeons often use a device called a trocar to create the small incisions. There’s a chance, though, that when the trocar breaks the skin, it will go too far and puncture the patient’s vessels or organs. According to Begg, these insertion errors occur once in every 1,000 surgeries (there are over a million laparoscopic procedures performed each year).
“Don’t think that every problem out there has a team of experts actively working to solve it -- that’s usually not the case,” Begg said, pointing to a favorite quote from H.C. Jacobaeus, who performed the first clinical laparoscopic prodecure.
In 1912, Jacobaeus said, “It is puncture itself that causes risk.” Yet, despite the problem being acknowledged more than 100 years ago, there have been little advancements in the field.
His device uses a spring that locks when the blade is pressed against tissue. It unlocks when the blade breaks the skin, retracting in just 1/100th of a second, similar to table saws with blades that immediately retract when they detect human skin.
“If you come across a problem that really grabs you, let it keep you up at night,” Begg said.
A lifelong tinkerer, his focus on improving the safety of medical devices includes designs for a laparoscopic lens cleaner and a sinusitis stent. Non-medical inventions include an automatic guitar tuner and a fire-safe microwave that can detect flames and turn itself off. His inventions earned him the coveted, $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize in 2013.
