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US 8,147,405 B2Granted
Surgical access port with multilayered tortuous path seal
AssigneeEthicon Endo-Surgery, Inc.
InventorsChristopher W. Widenhouse, Frederick E. Shelton, IV, Chris Cicenas, Michael D. Cronin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A surgical access device includes a wound protector and an instrument seal. The instrument seal comprises a plurality of resilient membranes each having a plurality of parallel slits. The membranes are stacked relative one another to create a tortuous path preventing insufflatory gases from escaping through the instrument seal.
Claims16
A surgical access device, comprising:
- a) a wound protector;
- b) an instrument seal attached to the wound protector, the instrument seal comprising a plurality of resilient membranes each having a plurality of elongate parallel slits, the membranes being stacked upon one another such that the slits of a given membrane are oblique to the slits of the adjacent membranes to create a tortuous path preventing insufflatory gases from escaping through the instrument seal.
A surgical access device, comprising:
- a) a wound protector;
- b) an instrument seal attached to the wound protector, the instrument seal comprising a plurality of substantially flat and circular resilient membranes each having a continuous periphery circumscribing the at least 10 parallel slits, the membranes being stacked and compressed upon one another such that the slits of a given membrane are not parallel to the slits of the adjacent membranes to create a tortuous path preventing insufflatory gases from escaping through the instrument seal.
A surgical access device, comprising:
- a) a wound protector;
- b) an instrument seal attached to the wound protector, the instrument seal comprising one or more proximal resilient membranes and one or more distal resilient membranes, the one or more proximal and distal membranes being substantially flat and circular and having a continuous periphery circumscribing a plurality of parallel slits, the one or more proximal and distal membranes being spaced from one another to define a gap.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.