Spears retriever
OwnerColin P. Spearsinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A biopsy instrument is provided which has a retractable cutting wire or filament looped external to the innermost surface of the distal end of the tissue cutting cylinder. Forceful retraction of the cutting wire will cause displacement and closure of a loop of wire over the distal margin of the cored tissue biopsy, thus freeing the biopsy specimen in its entirety from its original locus and allowing removal of the entire cored biopsy from the body substantially without stretching the specimen along its length.
Claims22
A trocar element having a longitudinal axis, a proximal end, a distal end, a passage therein extending from said distal end toward said proximal end along at least a portion of said longitudinal axis, and a filament looped about an exterior surface of said distal end, said filament having at least one longitudinal end extending proximally from said distal end whereby the application of a force to said least one longitudinal end causes said loop to slip off of said distal end and further application of force to said at least one longitudinal end causes said loop to at least partially close adjacent said distal end.
An inner trocar element having a longitudinal axis, a proximal end, a distal end, a passage therein extending from said distal end toward said proximal end along at least a portion of said longitudinal axis, an outer trocar element disposed in surrounding relation to said inner trocar element, said outer trocar element having a proximal end, a distal end, and a longitudinal axis, and a filament extending from an exterior side surface of said outer trocar element at least across a diameter of an opening of said passage at said distal end of said inner trocar element whereby tissue can be excised by inserting said inner and outer trocar elements into a target tissue and then rotating at least one of said inner and outer trocar elements.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.