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AssigneeMammoco Inc.
InventorsNavamanee Belinda Curpen, Claude Laflamme, Denise Ouimet-Oliva, Vincent Oliva
Estimating the term…
A device for marking a selected tissue location within a patient's body comprises at least two markers (16, 116, 216) pre-loaded into a hollow needle (18, 118, 218) and packaged in a sterile fashion with a stopper (28, 128, 218) to prevent a stylet (27, 127, 227) inserted into the needle (18, 118, 218) from releasing the markers (16, 116, 216) during shipping. An indexing mechanism (28/29, 128/129, 228/229) is also provided for releasably blocking the stylet (27, 127, 227) at successive predetermined levels of insertion into the needle with each level of insertion being associated with the discharge of a single marker (16, 116, 216).
A kit for marking selected tissue locations within a patient's body, comprising an elongated guide member defining a longitudinal passageway extending between a distal end and a proximal end of said elongated guide member, said distal end being adapted to be inserted into a patient's body to selected tissue locations, at least two markers adapted to be successively loaded into said passageway, an actuator adapted to be inserted into said passageway, through said proximal end, for successively pushing said at least two markers out of said passageway through said distal end, and an indexing mechanism for releasably blocking said actuator at successive predetermined levels of insertion into said passageway, wherein each said predetermined level of insertion is associated with the individual discharge of one of said at least two markers.
A device for delivering markers to selected tissue locations within a patient's body, comprising an elongated guide member having a distal end adapted to be inserted into a patient's body to selected tissue locations, a proximal end extending outwardly from the patient's body once said distal end has been introduced therein, a passageway extending from said proximal end to said distal end, and an actuator adapted to be inserted through said proximal end, into said passageway, to a first position in which further insertion of said actuator is temporarily prevented so that only a predetermined length of said actuator extends into said passageway to cause only one marker to be discharged through said distal end, and from said first position to a second position in which a sufficient length of said actuator now extends into said passageway to cause a second marker to be discharged from said distal end, thereby ensuring individual discharge of the markers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.