For various medical reasons, such as diagnostic tests or the like, it is often necessary for a physician to obtain a sample of a patient's body. Often, it is required to take a sample from a non-bony organ or tissue, or soft tissue rather than from a more rigid structure, such as a bone or bone marrow specimen. Soft tissue specimens by definition generally contain a less rigid structure and are compared with bone or bone marrow structures which are recovered with significant portions of their internal bony structure intact.
One exemplary surgical instrument for the severing and/or retrieval of tissue is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,522,398; 5843,001; and 6,015,391, of which the present applicant is also inventor. While these instruments are particularly suited for severing and collecting a more rigid tissue specimen, such as a bone marrow specimen, the instruments are not as effective at severing and/or retaining soft tissue samples. Also, the recovery of a soft tissue specimen by pushing it back through the handle from the tip of the needle may not be as the applicable for these specimens as it is for bone marrow specimens with preserved internal structure. An attempt to push the specimen through the needle could result in disruption of a specimen because a soft tissue specimens has less structure. Moreover in a long needle, such as an endoscopic SNARECOIL (trademark) needle, the length of the needle would be prohibitive in attempting to recover a specimen by pushing it out of the proximal end of the needle.
Other conventional procedures and instruments used for obtaining the samples, while not overly complex, almost universally result in excessive patient discomfort and often overly extends the patient's and operator's time and money.