Patent ID: 8858528

Claim:
A method of accessing tissue surfaces within a body of a patient where the tissue surface is obscured by a tissue structure, the method comprising: advancing an outer cannula through a first opening in the body of the patient, where the outer cannula has a rigid portion and a distal portion, where the distal portion includes a flexible section; manipulating tissue with the rigid portion of the cannula to place the distal portion adjacent to the tissue structure; articulating the distal portion by bending of the flexible section to position a distal opening around the tissue structure such that the outer cannula establishes a navigation path around the tissue structure from the first opening to the tissue surface while the tissue structure continues to obscure a line-of-sight path between the first opening and the tissue surface; and positioning a working lumen of a flexible inner cannula at the tissue surface by telescopically advancing the flexible inner cannula through the articulated outer cannula, where the flexible inner cannula has a linear shape when in a natural state and bends within the flexible section, where the flexible inner cannula resumes the natural state upon exiting the distal opening such that an entire length of the flexible inner cannula extending from the distal opening remains straight when advanced from the distal opening where the working lumen of the flexible inner cannula establishes a working channel from the first opening to the tissue surface.