Abstract: An automated mechanical device separates the epithelial layer of a cornea from the cornea. The device includes a separator such as a plate, wire or dull blade. The device can preserve a separated epithelial layer as a disk without rupturing the disk and without substantial epithelial cell loss. The epithelial layer is separated from the cornea without cutting the cornea.

Abstract: An endoscopic accessory medical device is provided. The device can include a handle, a flexible shaft, and an end effector. The handle can include an actuator for operating the end effector through a wire or cable pulling member that extends through the flexible shaft. The handle and actuator can be operable with a single hand, such that the operation of the end effector can be accomplished with the same hand that is used to hold the handle and advance the end effector through an endoscope. The handle can include an actuation mechanism that is decoupled from operation of the end effector when the actuator is in a first open position, which becomes operatively coupled to the end effector when the actuator is moved to a second position, such as by squeezing the actuator, and which operates the end effector when the actuator is moved further to a third position.

Abstract: A device for use in penetrating tissue to obtain a body fluid sample is provided. A cartridge may be included. A plurality of penetrating members are slidably coupled to the cartridge. Each penetrating member has a distal end that is sufficiently sharp to pierce tissue. Each penetrating member may be moveable relative to the other ones of the penetrating members so that the sharpened distal ends extend radially outward to penetrate tissue. The penetrating members are elongate members without molded attachments.

Abstract: Blood samples can be collected without substantial contamination from ambient air, such that the blood sample may be analyzed accurately for gaseous components such as oxygen and carbon dioxide. An embodiment of the device has integrated actuation, lancing, and sample acquisition components, which in some embodiments are miniatuized and/or disposable.

Abstract: An inflatable nasal packing device, and method of use, for insertion in a patient's nasal cavity to control bleeding or epistaxis. The device includes a flexible insertion tube, a first inflatable bag attached to and surrounding an anterior section of the tube, and a second inflatable bag attached to and surrounding a posterior section of the tube. The tube has three lumens for providing separate fill passageways to the two bags to allow independent filling and pressurization and for providing an air passageway through the device even when the bags are inflated. Both bags have walls of non-elastic, flexible material with fixed surface areas defining interior volumes when inflated that are larger than the anterior nasal cavity and the posterior nasal cavity and nasopharynx.

Abstract: Surgical treatment of tissue includes electrocauterization of blood vessels interposed between spaced sets of electrodes of opposite polarity, and includes transection of such tissue by a cutter that is mounted between the spaced sets of electrodes for translational and lateral movement relative to the sets of electrodes. Orientations of the sets of electrodes within a range of angles about an elongated axis of a supporting body are controlled by manual movement of an actuator mounted near a proximal end of the body for movement through a smaller range of angles via linkage connecting the actuator to the electrodes. Tissue dissection with gas insufflation to form an anatomical space in tissue is facilitated by a fluid outlet port located near the tissue-dissecting tip at the distal end of the elongated body that delivers through the tissue-dissecting tip to the dissected tissue a fluid under pressure that is supplied along a lumen within the elongated body.

Abstract: Embolectomy catheters, rapid exchange microcatheters, systems and methods for removing clots or other obstructive matter (e.g., thrombus, thromboemboli, embolic fragments of atherosclerotic plaque, foreign objects, etc.) from blood vessels. This invention is particularly useable for percutaneous removal of thromboemboli or other obstructive matter from small blood vessels of the brain, during an evolving stroke or period of cerebral ischemia. In some embodiments, the embolectomy catheters of this invention are advanceable with or over a guidewire which has been pre-inserted through or around the clot. Also, in some embodiments, the embolectomy catheters include clot removal devices which are deployable from the catheter after the catheter has been advanced at least partially through the clot. The clot removal device may included a deployable wire nest that is designed to prevent a blood clot from passing therethrough.

Abstract: A plaque scoring catheter comprises a catheter body having a balloon or other radially expansible shell at its distal end. A non-axial scoring structure is carried over the shell and scores a stenosed region in a blood vessel when the balloon is inflated therein. The non-axial scoring structure may be formed directly on the balloon or may alternatively be part of a cage structure which floats over the balloon. Exemplary configurations for the scoring structure include helical, serpentine, and irregular.

Abstract: A surgical tool for use in expanding a tubular structure having an inner surface defining a passage through the tubular structure for receiving surgical instruments includes a first leg having a first end engageable with the inner surface of the tubular structure. A second leg has a second end engageable with the inner surface of the tubular structure. The first and second ends are movable away from each other to apply a radially outwardly directed force to the inner surface of the tubular structure and cause expansion of the tubular structure to increase a cross-sectional area of the passage along a portion of the passage.

Abstract: Blood samples can be collected without substantial contamination from ambient air, such that the blood sample may be analyzed accurately for gaseous components such as oxygen and carbon dioxide. An embodiment of the device has integrated actuation, lancing, and sample acquisition components, which in some embodiments are miniaturized and/or disposable.

Abstract: A locking component for locking a medical device onto a guide wire. Such medical devices include, for example, an embolic filter assembly used to capture embolic material that may be created and released into a patient's vasculature during a stenting or angioplasty procedure. The embolic filter assembly tracks along the guide wire, and is delivered to a treatment site where it is locked in place and deployed. The locking component enables the filter assembly to lock onto any standard guide wire, and does not require a modified guide wire that has a specially-designed fitting or stop to accomplish the locking function.

Abstract: These and other objects of the present invention are achieved in a body fluid sampling system for use on a tissue site that includes a drive force generator and a penetrating member operatively coupled to the force generator. The force generator moves the member along a path out of a housing with a penetrating member exit, into the tissue site, stops in the tissue site, and withdraws out of the tissue site. The drive force generator is configured to be controlled to follow a predetermined velocity trajectory into the tissue and out of the tissue. A tissue stabilizing member is associated with the device and at least partially surrounds an impact location of the penetrating member on the tissue site.

Abstract: A method of performing a surgical procedure on a body includes providing a cannula having a tubular structure with first and second tubular portions defining first and second passages for receiving surgical instruments. The second tubular portion is inserted inside the body and the first tubular portion is inserted so that the first tubular portion extends from an exterior of the body to inside the body. The second tubular portion expands to increase the cross-sectional area of the second passage in the second tubular portion while the second tubular portion is inside the body. The cross-sectional area of the first passage in the first tubular portion is maintained. The first tubular portion has a first thickness and the second tubular portion has a second thickness different than the first thickness.

Abstract: The present device provides an apparatus for securely positioning a medical instrument relative to a patient. The apparatus comprises a drive assembly for moving the medical instrument along a first axis that is substantially parallel to the length of the instrument; an adapter comprising an elongated member and a pair of cooperating hubs for connecting the drive assembly to a positioning system. The cooperating hubs serving to allow separation of sterile from non sterile components. The positioning system comprises two motors each for moving the instrument about a different axis than the drive assembly. The apparatus moving the instrument about a point which is external to the patient. The device further comprises a sterile bag which encloses the positioning system, the bag having at least one opening for receiving an axel from a sterile adapter assembly, thereby rendering the entire apparatus sterile.

Abstract: Disclosed is a device for removing a foreign object from the body of a human or animal patient, the device being formed from a single length of tubing, slit lengthwise at its distal end to define an envelope of a basket cavity, the envelope featuring a set of second strands, each formed by slitting one of the first strands over a distal portion of the first strand, which distal portion is less than the full length of the first strand.

Abstract: A cannula (10) receives surgical instruments (120) for performing a surgical procedure on a body (130). The cannula (10) comprises a tube structure (12) defining a passage (16) through which the surgical instruments (120) are inserted into the body (130). The tube structure (12) has a proximal end (20) and a distal end (62). The tube structure (12) includes an expandable portion (40) for enabling an increase in the cross-sectional area of the passage (16) at the distal end (62). The expandable portion (40) of the tube structure (12), when expanded, has a conical configuration.

Abstract: A reciprocating surgical file system for precisely removing bone and/or other tissue is described. The system allows a user to maneuver the system and navigate into hard-to-access sites under a direct vision mechanism. A transmission mechanism converts rotary motion from a motor into reciprocating motion and provides it to the surgical file for precision removal of bone or other tissue. A pulsatile pump mechanism is operatively coupled with the transmission mechanism and provides irrigating fluid to the surgical site.

Abstract: In surgery of the vitreous body in an eyeball of a human body, a burden on and time of a surgeon is suppressed from being spent, a burden on the eyeball of a patient is greatly reduced, and further, the possibility of a complication after the surgery is also lessened. A holding apparatus, which has eyelid opener portions for pulling and opening upper and lower eyelids, a lens ring for holding a surgical contact lens on the eyeball, and connecting portions for connecting the eyelid opener portions with the lens ring of the surgical contact lens so that the surgical contact lens is held on the eyeball, is set on the eyeball of the patient, which makes it unnecessary to stitch of the lens ring on the eyeball.

Abstract: A device is disclosed for introducing a flexible elongated element through at least two portions of a subject. In a preferred embodiment, the device includes a proximal end and a distal end, and an advancement unit for longitudinally advancing the flexible elongated element toward the distal end of the device such that a proximal end of the elongated element may exit from the distal end of the device with sufficient force to pass through the subject. The device also includes a curved die at the distal end of the device for imparting a looping configuration to portions of the flexible elongated element exiting the distal end of the device, and a curved guide at the distal end for receiving the looped flexible elongated element as it returns to the distal end of the device. In a further feature of the invention, a cutting mechanism is provided to permit the looped flexible elongated element to be separated from the remainder of the flexible elongated element.

Abstract: A method for securing first and second tissues with a suture anchor comprising the steps of forming a borehole in the first tissue, threading a suture through the second tissue forming a loop in the suture with the tissue thereby secured in the loop, the loop defining two suture portions, attaching the two suture portions to the anchor whereby at least one of the two suture portions is threaded through the anchor and initially movable with respect to the anchor; and providing a force to a shaft of the anchor, the force causing clamping of the at least one of the two suture portions in the anchor and deformation of a deformable portion of the anchor to cause the deformable portion to engage a wall of the borehole thereby to secure the suture anchor is the first tissue and the loop holding the second tissue to the suture anchor.