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:
Apr. 14, 1998
Filed:
Mar. 24, 1995
Thomas J Sierocuk, West Chester, OH (US);
Lynetta J Freeman, West Chester, OH (US);
Michel A Paul, Cincinnati, OH (US);
Francis J Kramer, Fort Thomas, KY (US);
Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., Cincinnati, OH (US);
Abstract
A surgical method for creating an operative space during an endoscopic surgical procedure is disclosed. The method incorporates the use of an elongate instrument with an atraumatic tip for facilitating manual dissection of layers of tissues by advancing the instrument between the layers desired to be dissected. As the manual dissection is performed, the space between the dissected layers is enhanced by concurrently insufflating the dissected space as the instrument is advanced. Concurrently insufflating while dissecting eliminates the need to use a balloon dissector for creating the operative space. An improved surgical instrument particularly adapted to carry out this procedure is also disclosed. The improved surgical instrument is an optical obturator incorporating a contrasting imaging element displayed on the transparent tip of the obturator. The contrasting imaging element helps the surgeon to orient the positioning of the instrument relative to adjacent layers desired to be dissected for the creation of the operative space.