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Soft tissue retractor and method for providing surgical access
| Details |
Inventors: Mueller, Richard L.; Boyd, Stephen W.; Flom, James R.; Mangosong, Lorraine F.; Peters, William S.;
Assignee: Heartport, Inc. (Redwood City, CA)
Primary Examiner: Smith; Jeffrey A.
Assistant Examiner:
Attorney, Agent or Firm:
The present invention provides a retractor for providing surgical access through a passage in tissue, together with methods for its use and deployment. The retractor comprises an anchoring frame having an upper surface, a lower surface, and an opening therethrough which defines an axial axis. A flexible tensioning member is attached to the frame, and is extendable from the frame out of the body through the passage when the frame is positioned through the passage and into a body cavity. This tensioning member is selectively tensionable to spread the tissue radially outwardly from the axial axis. Hence, it is the tension imposed on the flexible liner which effects retraction of the tissue, rather than relying on the structural integrity of an artificial lumen. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION In a first aspect, the present invention provides a retractor for providing surgical access to a body cavity of a patient through a passage in tissue.
The retractor comprises an anchoring frame having an upper surface, a lower surface, and an opening therethrough which defines an axial axis.
The anchoring frame is positionable through the passage into the body cavity.
A flexible tensioning member is attached to the anchoring frame and extendable from the frame out of the body through the passage.
The tensioning member is selectively tensionable to spread the tissue radially outwardly from the axial axis.
Hence, it is the tension imposed on the flexible tensioning member which effects retraction of the tissue, rather than relying on the structural integrity of a tubular structure such as a trocar sheath.
Generally, an attachment mechanism on the tensioning member maintains tension so as to retract tissue from the passage.
Hence, the tensioning member need only be capable of withstanding and transferring the tension imposed by the attachment mechanism, there being no need for a rigid structure having sufficient hoop strength to maintain the tissue in the retracted position.
The resulting surgical access window need not be compromised by any rigid lumen wall or rigid blade-type structure, and the retraction load is distributed atraumatically over a wide area of the tissue by the flexible tensioning member.
Preferably, the anchoring frame will have a narrow profile configuration for insertion through an incision into the body cavity, and will be expandable to a wide profile configuration once inside the body cavity.
The frame may comprise a variety of collapsible and expandable structures, including a ring of resilient material which expands to the large configuration when released.
The tensioning member is preferably formed of a plurality of elongate tabs or strips of cloth, tape, cord, or strap material, ideally comprising an absorbent material such as gauze so as to absorb any fluids released by the tissue bordering the passage
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Heart Surgery 
