Endoscopic biopsy forceps jaws and instrument incorporating same

Abstract

Biopsy forceps jaws have a cup portion defined by a cup wall having an outer portion with a cup wall edge, and an inner portion having teeth. The teeth include peaks and valleys with the peaks rising above the outer portion cup wall edge, and the valleys remaining below the outer portion cup wall edge. The teeth are preferably arranged radially around at least a portion of the periphery of the cup and are offset by one half pitch so that two opposed identical jaws will mate. The radially outer surface of the peaks and the radially inner surface of the valleys are preferably radially chamfered. When two opposed jaws close, the peaks of the teeth on one jaw enter the valleys of the teeth on the other jaw and the edges of the cup walls of the two jaws touch such that the teeth of the two jaws are fully enclosed by the outer portions of the cup walls and the outer surface of the closed jaws is completely smooth. Also, during closure, as the radially chamfered peaks of the teeth of one jaw enter the radially chamfered valleys of the teeth of the other jaw, moving points of contact between the outer edges of the peaks and the cup wall edge above the valleys cause a scissoring action. A biopsy forceps instrument incorporating the jaws is also disclosed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.