Frictional characteristics of clamp surfaces of aneurysm clips finished by laser processing

An aneurysm clip is a medical instrument that is used intraoperatively to clip a ruptured cerebral aneurysm and reduce the risk of rebleeding. To prevent the clips from slipping off the aneurysm neck, it is very important to maintain a constant clamp force. A high frictional coefficient of the clip blades will also help prevent slippage between the clip blades and the blood vessel. In this study, to raise the frictional coefficients of the clip blades, we used a laser processing machine to produce clamp surfaces of the aneurysm clips with micro-dimples or micro-grooves. The static and dynamic frictional characteristics of the clamp surfaces made in this way were examined. The grooved surfaces with a width of 30 μm and a groove pitch of 40 μm showed the highest frictional coefficient. However, the dimpled surfaces with a shallow depth of 1 μm showed lower frictional coefficients than existing aneurysm clips.