| 摘要 |
The invention provides a variety of surgical instruments for forming a liquid jet, which are useful for performing a wide variety of surgical procedures. In some embodiments, the invention provides surgical liquid jet instruments having a pressure tube and an evacuation tube, where the pressure tube includes at least one nozzle for forming a liquid jet and where the evacuation tube includes a jet-receiving opening for receiving the liquid jet when the instrument is in operation. In some embodiments, the distal ends of both the pressure and evacuation tubes have a first configuration in a non-relaxed state and a second configuration in a more relaxed state. In some embodiments, a straightener is constructed to selectively control the configuration of the distal ends of both the pressure and evacuation tubes. The invention also provides surgical methods utilizing the inventive surgical liquid jet instruments for cutting or ablating a selected tissue within portions of a patient's spine, such as within the intervertebral disc.
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