Patent 10111777 was granted and assigned to Novartis on October, 2018 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Apparatuses, systems, and methods are described for selectively generating an aspiration flow within a surgical instrument. Particularly, the disclosure describes example vitrectomy probes operable to selectively generate an aspiration flow in relation to operation of the cutter of the vitrectomy probe. In some instances, one or more valves may be used to form a barrier or closure and create a piston effect in order to selectively generate an aspiration flow.