Patent ID: 7556601

Claim:
A surgical instrument for accessing and illuminating a space within a body of a patient, comprising: a retractor positionable with the body of the patient and including an inner wall surface defining a working channel therealong; and a lighting element including at least one wall member and at least one light transmitting element along said at least one wall member, said at least one wall member being deformable to assume any one of a number of configurations for positioning of the wall member in the working channel such that the wall member frictionally engages said inner wall surface, said frictional engagement sufficient to maintain a position of said lighting element relative to said retractor after said lighting element is moved while frictionally engaging said inner surface to said position, wherein said retractor is a tube with the inner wall surface of said tube defining said working channel, and said at least one wall member of said lighting element extends around more than 50 percent of said inner wall surface of said tube.