The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 05, 1997
Filed:
May. 13, 1996
Maciej J Kieturakis, San Carlos, CA (US);
Archimedes Surgical, Inc., Menlo Park, CA (US);
Abstract
For surgery, an endoscopic retrograde dissector instrument and less invasive method for bluntly dissecting tissue planes overlying and underlying a rectus abdominus muscle to mobilize the muscle in a transverse abdominal mastoplasty (breast reconstruction). The retrograde dissector includes an elongate blunt-tipped guide member that carries a distal inflatable sleeve. The blunt tip of the guide member is advanced distally along a plane in the interior of the body thereby creating a small diameter dissected track. The distal inflatable sleeve is inflated and then pulled in a retrograde movement along the track to dissect a wide tissue plane laterally on each side of the track in a single efficient step. A pulse mechanism rapidly pulsates the inflated sleeve to facilitate the dissection of connective tissues along planes of least resistance to create a relatively blood-free dissected tissue plane.