I remember when I first heard about that equipment, how cool it sounded that you could remove large pieces of material through a tiny hole, effectively with a tiny hand mixer and a hose.

The smaller the holes the simpler the recovery, but clearly the consequences are a lot more dire than they lead on. I was under the impression that the material was extracted at the point of removal, not through a separate mechanism. Sounds like there's some significant contact time and loss of material.

Which makes one wonder what kind of surgery one of these would be useful for. Precancerous cells? Nope. Infection? Same problems.