Patent ID: 8105234

Claim:
A surgical hand port for laparoscopic surgical procedures wherein an incision is made in a body wall of a patient and an abdominal cavity is pressurized with an insufflation gas, the hand port is adapted to provide access to the abdominal cavity for surgical procedures while maintaining insufflation pressure in the abdominal cavity, comprising: a gel seal valve, comprising: a support ring, wherein the support ring is configured to be aligned with an axis of an access channel defined at least in part by the incision extending through the body wall of a patient; and a gel pad coupled with the support ring, the gel pad being disposed substantially within the support ring and supported at least partially thereby, the gel pad comprising a molded mixture of an elastomer and an oil, wherein the elastomer comprises at least one of polyurethane, polyvinylchloride, polyisoprene, a thermoset elastomer, a thermoplastic elastomer, a tri-block copolymer, styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene block copolymer, styrene-isoprene-styrene, styrene-butadiene-styrene, styrene-ethylene/propylene-styrene, and wherein the oil comprises at least one of mineral oil, vegetable oil, petroleum oil, and silicone oil, the gel pad having an ultimate elongation greater than about 1000 percent and a durometer less than about 5 Shore A, the gel pad being sized and shaped for disposition relative to the access channel defined at least in part by the incision extending through the body wall of the patient, the gel pad is configured to form a seal with an instrument extending through the gel pad and form a seal in the absence of any instrument extending through the gel pad, the gel pad is adapted to accommodate a range of instrument sizes from about the size of a guidewire to about the size of a surgeon's arm.