Development of an Ultra-rapid, Small Tissue-collecting Device for Endoscopic Surgery--the Lymph Node Carrier: Useful in Protecting the Air-sealing Valves of the Trocar for Endoscopic Surgery and in Preventing Port Site Recurrence.

In laparoscopic and thoracoscopic surgery for malignant tumors, it is often necessary to recognize intraoperative rapid diagnosis by sampling a small section of tissue that is suspected of the lymphatic or disseminated metastasis of malignant tumor cells, or of the direct invasion. However, sampling of the target tissue has to be carried out without dropping a section into the peritoneal or thoracic cavity and port-site tumor recurrence. We developed a device named the "lymph node carrier (LNC)" that is capable of instantaneously carrying a small piece of tissue out of the body after its insertion into the trocar for conventional laparoscopic surgery.