SURGICAL SNARE

• US 3,828,790 A
• Filed: 02/28/1973
• Issued: 08/13/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/1973
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Circon Corp. (Olympus Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lawrence F. Curtiss, Richard W. Hall
• Inventors: Curtiss, Lawrence F., Hall, Richard W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Laudenslager, Lucie H.
• Application Number:
  US05/336,631
• Time in Patent Office: 531 Days
• Field of Search: 128/320,319,305,306,307,308,309,303.14,303.16,317 30/116,140
• US Class Current: 606/113
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/32056 Surgical snare instruments for removing or smashing calculi A61B2017/2212; tonsillotomes A61B17/26
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 18/10 Power sources therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00642 with feedback, i.e. closed loop control
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00791 Temperature

Abstract

Surgical snare has an operating loop formed with a resilient spiral sleeve through which a core member extends. The core member is flat and resilient, forming a spring which has greater flexibility in the direction parallel to the rest plane of the operating loop than normal thereto, thereby providing a surgical snare with a loop which, though having the thickness of the spiral sleeve, has substantially the flexibility of the much thinner core member in the directon parallel to the plane of the loop.

Claims

1. A surgical snare comprising an elongated flexible sheath, a lead extending in said sheath, operating loop means connected to the distal-end portion of said lead, actuating means connected to the proximal end portion of said lead for shifting the same relative to said sheath between a retracted position in which said operating loop means is nested within said sheath and a protracted position in which said operating loop means extends beyond the distal end of said sheath and is free to open to form a loop, said operating loop means including an elongated flexible spiral sleeve and an elongated resilient core member extending in said spiral sleeve, and said operating loop means having substantially greater flexibility in the direction parallel to its plane when open than normal thereto.

2. A surgical snare as set forth in claim 1 in which said core member has a thickness in the direction parallel to said plane of said operating loop means which is substantially less than its width in the direction normal to said plane.

3. A surgical snare as set forth in claim 2 in which the thickness of said core member is substantially less than the inner diameter of said spiral sleeve.

4. A surgical snare as set forth in claim 3 in which the width of said core member is substantially equal to the inner diameter of said spiral sleeve.

5. A surgical snare as set forth in claim 4 in which said lead is removably connected to said actuating means.

6. A surgical snare lead and loop assembly, comprising an elongated lead, means forming a flexible operating loop connected to the distal-end portion of said lead and comprising flexible spiral sleeve means and an elongated resilient core member extending in said sleeve means, said core member having a width substantially greater than its thickness extending with its width substantially normal to the plane of said loop, whereby said operating loop has substantially greater resistance of flexure in the direction normal to the plane of said loop than in the direction parallel thereto.

7. Surgical snare lead and loop assembly as set forth in claim 6 in which said spiral sleeve means comprises a pair of spiral members connected adjacent to their proximal ends to the distal end of said lead and extending about said core member with their distal ends in close-spaced relation, and the end portions of said core member are connected to the distal-end portion of said lead.

8. Surgical snare lead and loop assembly as set forth in claim 7 in which said lead, spiral members and said core member are electrically conductive.