Systems and methods for tissue removal

A guard for providing a cut-resistant pathway through a body opening defining a tissue margin, the guard comprising:

• a sidewall having a tubular shape defining a central lumen extending along a longitudinal axis between a first end and a second end;
• the sidewall being made of cut-resistant mesh material having a plurality of interwoven filaments defining interstices in a tubular first layer of mesh material;
• the plurality of interwoven filaments being formed of a plastically deformable heat setting material with the cut-resistant mesh material comprising the interwoven filaments molded and heat set to shape the cut-resistant mesh material of the sidewall;
• the sidewall being folded to create a fold at a distal end of the guard with the first end and the second end of the sidewall being adjacent to each other at a proximal end of the guard;
• the folded sidewall forming a tubular second layer of mesh material substantially coaxial with the tubular first layer of mesh material.

A guard for providing a cut-resistant pathway through a body opening to protect a tissue margin, the guard comprising:

• a sidewall having a tubular shape defining a central lumen;
• the central lumen extending along a longitudinal axis between a proximal opening at a proximal end and a distal opening at a distal end;
• the sidewall being made of at least one layer of flexible, cut-resistant mesh material having a plurality of interwoven filaments defining interstices;
• the sidewall having a generally hourglass shape when in a normal, undeformed configuration with a progressively increasing central lumen toward the proximal end defining a proximal flange in the sidewall and a progressively increasing central lumen toward the distal end defining a distal flange in the sidewall;
• the proximal flange being configured to anchor the guard with respect to a proximal end of the tissue margin and the distal flange being configured to anchor the guard with respect to a distal end of the tissue margin and the sidewall circumferentially protecting the tissue margin along the body opening;
• the sidewall having a neck portion located between the proximal flange and the distal flange;
• the sidewall being deformable from the normal, undeformed configuration and biased to return to the normal, undeformed configuration when released,
• wherein the interwoven filaments being formed of a plastically deformable heat setting material;
• the cut-resistant mesh material comprising the interwoven filaments being molded and heat set to give the cut-resistant mesh material of the side wall the generally hourglass shape.