Patent ID: 9370611
Filing Date: 2016-06-21
CPC Classification: A61B,A61F,A61M

Claim Text:
1. A tissue removal device, comprising: a handpiece enclosing a handpiece interior and having a proximal handpiece opening and a distal handpiece opening; a vacuum conduit extending from the proximal handpiece opening and through the handpiece interior and the distal handpiece opening, and terminating at an open distal conduit end disposed outside the handpiece at a distance from the distal handpiece opening, the vacuum conduit including a rigid conduit section extending along at least a portion of the vacuum conduit to the distal conduit end, wherein the vacuum conduit defines a fluid path; a valve mechanism comprising an actuator and a movable member movable by the actuator in the rigid conduit section to alternately open and close the fluid path, wherein the valve mechanism generates vacuum pulses at a pulse rate and pulse magnitude effective for breaking up target tissue; and a vacuum control device communicating with the valve mechanism and comprising pulse rate control circuitry configured to control a pulse rate of the vacuum pulses, and vacuum-mode switching circuitry configured to switch the valve mechanism between a continuous-vacuum mode and a pulsed vacuum mode, wherein, in the continuous-vacuum mode the vacuum control device is configured to provide a base vacuum magnitude, and in the pulsed vacuum mode the vacuum control device is configured to provide the pulse magnitude at a level higher than the base vacuum magnitude.