Patent ID: 7699861

Claim:
A method for harvesting a vessel from surrounding tissue, comprising the steps of: providing a surgical instrument having: a housing including distal and proximal ends, said housing having an elongated shaft attached thereto and extending from a distal end thereof, said shaft including a tip and a plurality of lumens disposed through portions thereof, one of said lumens being dimensioned to accommodate an endoscope, and at least one of said remaining plurality of lumens being dimensioned to accommodate one of a plurality of additional surgical instruments selected from the group consisting of: ligating instruments, bipolar shears, ultrasonic shears, clip appliers, coagulating instruments, cutting instruments, vessel sealing instruments, vessel graspers, insufflators, irrigation instruments, suction instruments and combinations of the same; said tip having a distal blunt section and a proximal notched portion, the tip being selectively movable to expose a cradle section, said cradle section being located between the proximal notched portion of said tip and a distal end of said shaft, said proximal notched portion oriented transversely to the longitudinal axis of the shaft and dimensioned to facilitate grasping of a vessel tributary; inserting said instrument into an incision in the body; advancing said instrument through the incision and along the vessel; utilizing the endoscope to view and the blunt tip to dissect surrounding tissue from the vessel to form an operating cavity; extending said blunt tip to expose said cradle section; positioning vessel tributaries in said cradle section for treatment by one of the plurality of additional surgical instruments; and positioning said vessel tributaries in the notched portion for treatment by one of the plurality of additional surgical instruments; and treating said vessel tributaries by use of said one of said plurality of surgical instruments.