Patent ID: 7559918

Claim:
An assembly for sealed reception of a surgical object into a body cavity of a patient, which comprises: a housing; a sleeve connected to the housing and dimensioned for introduction through body tissue to provide access to an underlying surgical site in a body cavity, the sleeve defining a longitudinal axis, the housing and the sleeve defining a longitudinal passage for reception and passage of the surgical object; a first seal member detachably mounted to the housing for forming a substantial sealing relation with the surgical object passing through longitudinal passage of the housing and the sleeve, the first seal member including a plurality of flexible bristle members mounted about the longitudinal axis to extend inwardly relative to the longitudinal axis, at least some of the bristle members configured to define an internal longitudinal taper whereby an internal dimension defined by the internal taper decreases along the longitudinal axis from proximal to distal, at least some of the remaining bristle members being arranged to define a longitudinal opening distal of the internal longitudinal taper and having an internal dimension which is substantially constant along the longitudinal axis, the internal longitudinal taper leading to the longitudinal opening; and a second seal member for sealing the longitudinal passage in the absence of the surgical object.