Appeal No. 96-2294
Application 08/278,558
This is an appeal from the final rejection of claims 1 to
8 and 10 to 12. Claim 9 has been cancelled. These are the only
claims in the application.
The invention is directed to a surgical instrument which has
an outer cannula of tubular shape which is sized for insertion
into a body. The outer cannula has a cutting opening at its
distal end and is supported by a handpiece at its proximal end.
The instrument further comprises an inner cannula which is
slidably and concentrically disposed within the central barrel of
the outer cannula. The inner cannula reciprocates inside the
outer cannula and by reciprocation cuts tissue that protrudes
through the opening in the outer cannula. In the first
embodiment, the inner cannula has a hinge means to permit the
cutting head to pivot slightly to give closer cutting. In the
second embodiment, the body portion which extends from the
cutting head to the connecting means on the handpiece is defined
by an arc segment of preferably 70 to 80E. The arc segment gives
the benefit of the hinge means of the first embodiment.
Claim 1 is further illustrative of the claimed subject
matter and is appended to this decision.
The reference of record relied upon by the examiner as
evidence of anticipation is:
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007