Patent ID: 8025640

Claim:
A surgical access assembly, which comprises: a housing; an elongate access member extending from the housing, the access member dimensioned for positioning within a patient's tissue and defining a passageway therethrough configured to removably receive a surgical object; a seal member disposed within the housing and having an aperture defined therein and extending therethrough, the seal member being adapted to transition between a first condition, wherein the aperture includes a first transverse dimension, and at least one subsequent condition, wherein the aperture includes a second transverse dimension that is smaller than the first transverse dimension; a pump assembly operatively coupled to the seal member and configured to circulate a fluid into and out of the seal member to thereby respectively transition the seal member between the first condition and the at least one subsequent condition, the pump assembly including: a pressure transducer adapted to measure pressure exerted by the fluid within the seal member, the pressure transducer being adapted to translate the measured pressure into a first signal; a processing unit operatively coupled to the pressure transducer, the processing unit being configured to receive and process the first signal into at least one additional signal to control circulation of the fluid into and out of the seal member; and at least one sensor operatively coupled to the housing and in communication with the processing unit, the at least one sensor being adapted to detect at least one attribute of a surgical object upon the introduction into the surgical access assembly, the sensor being configured to generate a signal in response thereto to control the pump assembly; and a delay mechanism in communication with the at least one sensor to provide a specified interval of time between detection of the surgical object and activation of the pump assembly in order to minimize force necessary to advance the surgical object through the seal member.