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Air-powered tissue-aspiration instrument system employing curved bipolar-type electro-cauterizing dual cannula assembly

  • US 7,384,417 B2
  • Filed: 05/21/2003
  • Issued: 06/10/2008
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/14/1990
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. An air-powered tissue-aspiration instrument system, comprising:

  • an air-powered instrument having a hand-supportable housing supporting a curved dual cannula assembly including(i) a flexible hollow inner cannula constructed from electrically non-conductive material having a distal end and a proximal end and an inner aspiration aperture about said inner cannula distal end, said inner cannula proximal end further including an outlet port and a continuous passageway which communicates said inner aspiration aperture with said outlet port;

    (ii) a curved hollow outer cannula rigidly constructed from electrically conductive material and mounted stationary relative to said hand-holdable housing and having a distal end and a proximal end and an outer aspiration aperture about said outer cannula distal end, said flexible hollow inner cannula being disposed within at least a portion of said curved hollow outer cannula while permitting aspiration of tissue through said outer and inner aspiration apertures, along said continuous passageway and out of said outlet port; and

    (iii) first and second electro-cauterizing electrodes supported by said curved dual cannula assembly, for supplying RF-power signals to the outer and inner aspiration apertures of said curved hollow outer cannula and said flexible hollow inner cannula, respectively, during tissue-aspiration operations;

    wherein said flexible non-conductive inner cannula has a first base portion and an electrically conductive wire molded within the walls thereof which terminates in said second electro-cauterizing electrode extending about the inner aspiration aperture of said flexible hollow inner cannula, for conducting RF power signals from said first base portion to said second electrocauterizing electrode during tissue aspiration operations;

    wherein said curved hollow outer cannula has a second base portion releasably mounted within said hand-supportable housing, and said first electro-cauterizing electrode extending about the outer aspiration aperture of said curved hollow outer cannula for conducting RF power signals from said second base portion to said first electrocauterizing electrode during tissue aspiration operations, and wherein said flexible hollow inner cannula is slidably supported within said curved hollow outer cannula and driven by a drive mechanism mounted within said hand-supportable housing so as to cause so that the location of said tissue aspiration through said outer and inner suction aspiration is periodically displaced during tissue aspiration operations.

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