Percutaneous excisional biopsy device

Claim 1

Surgical device for extracting cancerous or other tissue to be biopsied from a human breast, comprising a support for facilitating manual holding of the device; an elongate inner hollow tube defining an axis and having proximate and remote ends, said proximate end being rotatably mounted on said support and said remote end being dimensioned to be introduced through a small skin incision into the breast and advanced into close proximity to the region where the tissue sought to be excised is located; cutting means provided at said remote end of said elongate inner hollow tube, said cutting means including flexible cutting blades having cutting edges generally in the direction of said axis and formed to normally and naturally expand to expanded positions suitable for cutting adjacent tissue upon rotation of said elongate tube about said axis; an elongate outer hollow sleeve enclosing said inner hollow tube and mounted on said support for axial movements relative to said inner hollow tube for selectively engaging said cutting blades and forcing said blades to move to collapsed positions not suitable for cutting tissue and disengaging from said cutting blades to permit said blades to move to said normal and natural expanded position; drive means cooperating with said remote end of said inner hollow tube for selectively rotating said tube about said axis; means for irrigating a region containing the excised tissue with a carrier fluid; and collection means in fluid flow communication with said elongate inner hollow tube for collecting the excised tissue for analysis by receiving the carrier fluid after it has irrigated the region where said cutting means are positioned to excise tissue, whereby said outer hollow sleeve substantially covers and collapses said cutting blades when said remote end of said inner hollow tube and sleeve are introduced through an incision in the skin to advance said cutting blades to a location of the tissue to be removed and continues to protect adjacent tissue not to be removed during rotation of said inner hollow tube, and said blades can gradually and continuously expand after said outer hollow sleeve disengages from said cutting blades and an increasingly larger cavity is formed in the tissue to be removed as a result of the rotation and the cutting action of said cutting blades.