Patent ID: 6939357

Claim:
An instrument for closing, by subcutaneous suturing, an orifice ( 1 ) made in the abdominal wall ( 2 ) of a patient for passage of a trocar that has been used for a surgical operation by laparoscopy, characterized in that it comprises a cylindrical rigid cannula ( 3 ), one end part ( 4 ) of which can be introduced into the orifice ( 1 ); a piston ( 5 ) extending coaxially in the cannula ( 3 ) and being operable externally by an operator; two needles ( 7 ) movably attached to the diametrically opposite ends of a support member ( 8 ; 26 ), which itself is supported in the end part ( 4 ) of the cannula ( 3 ) and which can occupy, under the action of the piston ( 5 ), a collapsed position in which the needles ( 7 ) are drawn back into the end part ( 4 ) of the cannula and an extended position after introduction of the cannula ( 3 ) into the orifice ( 1 ), in which case the needles ( 7 ) project completely out of the cannula underneath the abdominal wall ( 2 ) by passing through respectively two longitudinal slots ( 10 ) of the lateral wall of the cannula ( 3 ), and are inclined relative to the longitudinal axis of the cannula ( 3 ) on both sides thereof and are directed toward one another; a means ( 15 ) for extracting the needles ( 7 ), which is mounted slidingly in the cannula ( 3 ), concentrically with the piston ( 5 ), and which can be maneuvered by the operator so that it can be displaced from a low position in the end part ( 4 ) of the cannula ( 3 ) to a high position in the upper end part thereof in such a way that, during this displacement, it simultaneously catches the two needles ( 7 ), which were introduced beforehand into the abdominal wall ( 2 ) and which penetrate obliquely toward one another in the orifice ( 1 ) and the cannula ( 3 ) through longitudinal slots ( 10 ), and extracts them from the support member ( 8 ; 26 ) in order to guide them into the cannula ( 3 ), at the same time pulling a suture thread ( 25 ) into the abdominal wall ( 2 ) and the cannula ( 3 ), the thread ( 25 ) having its ends integral respectively with the two needles ( 7 ) and defining a loop ( 25 a ), which is situated outside the cannula and which passes through the orifice ( 1 ) to the outside of the abdominal wall ( 2 ), the ends of the thread ( 25 ) then being accessible, so that they can be grasped and cut by the operator after complete retraction of the cannula ( 3 ) from the orifice ( 1 ), in order to close the said orifice by tying a knot with the two strands of the thread ( 25 ).