Abstract: Bone harvest or bone biopsies so far are made with the use of rotating hollow drills or through axial insertion of a hollow device. Upon retraction of the instrument the problem exists that the bone core often does not detach from its basis and thus cannot be harvested with ease. Additionally, using these methods, often the histology of the bone is disturbed significantly. This problem is solved by this invention by the use of a bone harvesting device which consists of a hollow cylinder, has cutting teeth at one end and has an interior cross-section which is not round. This device can be inserted into the bone using circular oscillation, creating a bone core which has a shape deviating from a strict cylinder shape. Once the desired depth has been achieved, the bone core can be reliably sheared off its basis by rotating the instrument in an angle exceeding the angle of the oscillation.

Abstract: An endoscope which contains, in a housing, in parallel relationship, a light guide, at least one flushing duct, and a continuously driven shaft which carries at its end, protruding in operation from the tip of the endoscope, a cutting instrument having a plurality of cutting blades. This design makes it possible to remove pieces of tissue, for example, for laboratory tests in a more intact way than was possible with the endoscope according to the parent U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,309. The endoscope disclosed herein lends itself to a wide variety of medical fields.