Patent ID: 11864739
Assignee: nan
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 14:
15. A method for retracting tissues to allow access to portions of a patient internal body, said method comprising the steps of:
inserting a distal end of a plurality of coaxial blades through an incision in the patient's body into a cavity;
expanding the plurality of coaxial blades to define a channel set between said plurality of coaxial blades while at least at some time causing an exterior side of at least one of said plurality of coaxial blades to contact with an interior edge of an adjacent one of said plurality of coaxial blades from a proximal end to a distal end of the blade;
forming a surgical portal through the channel defined by the plurality of coaxial blades;
locking a relative orientation of the plurality of coaxial blades to retain a fixed diameter of the channel;
accessing a surgical site through a proximal end of the channel;
contracting the plurality of coaxial blades to reduce the diameter of the channel set between said plurality of coaxial blades while maintaining each of the blades in contact from a distal end to a proximal end to each of two adjacent blades; and
withdrawing the plurality of coaxial blades from the patient's body.