How do you extract a vein from a patient's leg without creating a long and uncomfortable convalescence?

The question comes up in coronary bypass surgery, during which surgeons typically use the leg's saphenous vein as a replacement for clogged heart arteries. Traditionally, getting that vein meant making a long incision in the patient's leg, from groin to ankle - and recovery from the incision is almost as arduous as recovery from the bypass.

Richard Lotti '78, together with undergraduate students in Rensselaer's O.T. Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory (MDL), aims to change that.

Lotti is president and CEO of Converge Medical, which focuses on creating less invasive surgical devices for coronary artery bypass procedures. Last year, he asked the MDL to develop a cost-effective product that addresses the vein harvesting issue. That effort was led by Jeffrey Alvarez '04, a mechanical engineering student.

For the fall semester, the project attracted a team of six students: four mechanical engineers, a biomedical engineer, and an electrical engineer. "Everyone brought their own talents to the project," noted Kumar Jambunathan, the team's student leader. "The mechanical engineers all had strong skills in three-dimensional model design as well as machining and manufacturing, while the electrical engineer was invaluable when developing the instruments' cauterization functionality to seal the vessels." Three of the six team members had recently completed co-op assignments at Converge in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Working closely with Converge resources, the students arrived at two prototypes, of which a Rotational Ring Dissector concept proved more promising. The tool's potential became apparent during a trip to the University of Maryland, where the students used it to extract a five-inch section of vein from a human cadaver.

Even so, the dissector needed refinement in several areas-among them its profile, which impeded the surgeon's line of sight. The task of improving the tool has fallen to a spring semester team, whose design skills have already become apparent in initial concept revisions.

The project has drawn praise from both Converge and the team. "We have been fortunate to attract outstanding students who are willing to challenge themselves in the area of lifesaving biomedical devices," Lotti said. "This project may well provide Converge Medical with another product line that satisfies an unmet need for the customer."

Jambunathan, for his part, is enthusiastic about the MDL experience. "This course was really not like any other at RPI," he said. "It forces you to think like an engineer, and to solve real-world problems. The ability to make an impact with the work you are doing is what is going to keep people in the field of engineering and attract new candidates."