Patent ID: 8052613

Claim:
A tissue removal tool, comprising: an elongate tubular sheath, having a proximal end and a distal end; an elongate shaft axially moveably positioned within the sheath, the shaft comprising a proximal shaft end and a distal shaft end; a plurality of filaments carried by and axially extending distally beyond the distal end of the shaft; wherein the filaments each comprise a proximal end and a free distal end, and at least one filament comprises a helical shape on the distal end; wherein the filaments are moveable between a first, reduced cross sectional profile when the shaft is proximally retracted to position the filaments within the sheath, and a second, expanded cross sectional profile when the shaft is axially distally advanced with respect to the sheath, to expose the filaments beyond the distal sheath end, the filaments biased to overlap each other in the second profile and configured to entangle tissue fragments and to extract tissue fragments from a body cavity.