The present invention(s) relate to surgical scalpel blades and handles.
Scalpels are regularly used by surgeons and other healthcare professionals for making incisions in a patient during an operative procedure. Typically, a certified surgical scrub technician affixes the blade to a reusable handle at the beginning of an operation, and the blade tang has to be grasped either by the user's hand or by a clamp and pulled from the handle. This procedure is not desirable because it exposes the person attempting to remove the blade to the risk of being cut if the user's hand is used to grasp the blade tang, and even if a clamp is used, this procedure is cumbersome at best. This process is similar with disassembly at the end of a surgical case.
Such awkward hand motions may lead to potential nicks or cuts that are uncomfortable and distracting. In addition, the nicks or cuts may result in blood or body fluid exposure, between the patient and the surgeon or other healthcare professionals in the operating room or elsewhere in the hospital, which may lead to the spread of infectious diseases between the patient and the healthcare professional. Concern over this situation has become especially acute because of diseases such as acquired immune deficiency syndrome, i.e. AIDS, and hepatitis.
While surgical gloves aid in reducing the chances of being cut during a surgical procedure, these gloves are not foolproof, and even when two sets of gloves are utilized, full protection is not afforded to the healthcare provider because the scalpel blade can still cut through both sets of gloves. Also, utilizing two sets of gloves reduces finger dexterity by the surgeon and thus is distracting to the surgeon and can interfere with the intended surgical procedure.
In view of the need for a surgical scalpel that can prevent or at least minimize the chances of accidental nicks or cuts during assembly and disassembly, numerous surgical scalpels have been designed. Unfortunately, these designs are deficient because they are cumbersome, difficult to use, and may cause unwanted shielding or exposure of the scalpel blade prior to the need for it. In addition, these prior designs are deficient because they do not provide a safe and effective way for the blade to be attached and removed from the handle before or after the surgical procedure.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention(s), there are improvements made to the handle. The handle is constructed with a scissor action for opening an internal liner lock, such as to allow for cleaning. The external handle has a small window on at least one side to allow for rotational movement of the internal liner locking mechanism. A surgical blade and attaching mechanism is located on the proximal end and uses a blade that can quickly and safely be attached and removed from the handle via a rotating, locking mechanism. The handle may be constructed of a reusable metal material sufficiently strong enough to withstand repeated autoclave cleaning.
The handle is made from two parts. The external handle housing is fashioned with sides that are affixed at several points by multiple locking pins. There is a larger pivot pin located at the midpoint of the handle assembly to allow the internal liner to attach to the external handle parts and rotate in at least a 90 degree fashion to allow for locking of the internal liner into operational position. The handle has a grooved recess at a proximal end of the handle on the bottom side. This allows exposure of the inner liners proximal end that contains the spring arm mechanism for locking the blade into place.
There is a small window cut out of one side of the external handle, to allow for a second spring a built into the inner liner, located at the distal end of the handle to allow for the inner liner to lock into the operational position.
There are several small notches on the inner liner to act as an inner liner stop pin positions. These are located on the distal top side of the inner liner and inferior mid-point, proximal to the pivot pin of the inner liner.
There is a retainer pin affixed to one side of the handle near the proximal blade end that holds the blade. The retainer pin acts as a lever stop when the blade is engaged into the proximal end of the handle. The blade has a unique attachment point design so that it may be affixed to a cam pin and is locked into position by the lever locking cleat.
According to exemplary embodiments, there s also a surgical scalpel having a scalpel body, a slot extending through the scalpel body, and a cover shield configured to slide along a longitudinal direction of the scalpel body by attachment with the slot. There is a forward detent hole and a rear detent hole of the scalpel body into which a first ball detent lock and a second ball detent lock of the cover shield are configured to insert there into respectively. There is a position in which the cover shield is slid distal to the scalpel body is configured to reveal a position at which a blade is attached to the scalpel body and a position in which the cover shield is slid proximal to the scalpel body is configured to cover the blade, and there is a rotation of the cover shield about the scalpel body.
It is therefore an object of the present invention(s) to provide a safe removable surgical scalpel blade that prevents or at least minimizes the chance that the healthcare professional will be nicked or cut when the surgical scalpel is affixed to the handle.
It is still a further object of the present invention(s) to provide a surgical scalpel that allows for the safe and effective removal of the blade from the handle after use and disposal of the blade.
It is yet a further object of the present invention(s) to provide a surgical scalpel handle with a mechanism that is easy to open and close as well as to assemble and disassemble after use for sterilization, cleaning and disposal.
Yet another object of the present invention(s) invention is a uniquely designed blade handle, with a spring arm that allows for constant tension to hold the blade in place.
Yet another object of the present invention(s) invention is a uniquely designed cover shield attachable to a scalpel body to cover a blade.
The advantages, features and aspects of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, which is set forth hereinafter. Therefore, those skilled in the field of this art of the present invention can embody the technological concept and scope of the invention easily. In addition, if it is considered that detailed description on a related art may obscure the points of the present invention, the detailed description will not be provided herein. The specific embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail hereinafter with reference to the attached drawings.
The inner liner 100 includes a locking cleat 101 and a blade retention spring arm 102 which both act to retain a blade 300 or a blade 400 as in
Protruding from the inner surface 201 of the external handle 200 towards the inner liner 100 are a blade pivot pin 202, a proximal locking pin 203c, a proximal locking pin 203d, an inferior midpoint locking pin 203a, a pivot pin 204 and a distal locking pin 203b.
The pivot pin 204, larger than the other pins, protrudes through the inner liner 100 such that the inner liner 100 may be attached to the external handle 200 by the pivot pin 204 and may also rotate about the pivot pin 204. Rotational motion of the inner liner 100 about the pivot pin 204 is bounded by the proximal locking pin 203c, the inferior midpoint locking pin 203a and the distal locking pin 203b. When the inner liner 100 is in line with the external handle 200, as in
The blade pivot pint 202, proximal locking pin 203c, proximal locking pin 203d, inferior midpoint locking pin 203a, pivot pin 204 and distal locking pin 203b may be self-locking implanted cotter (SLIC) pins which may be disassembled and reassembled during maintenance of the handle and assembly of the inner liner 100 to the external handle 200 so that the inner surface 201, the locking cleat 101, and the back part 200b of the external handle 200 may be disassembled and reassembled to each other.
As illustrated in
According to exemplary embodiments, clockwise rotation of the inner liner 100 in the perspective of
The cover shield slot 502 is configured to allow the cover shield 500 to slide along the scalpel body 503 by attachment with the internal slide bar 508, according to exemplary embodiments. The cover shield slot 502 may extend through the scalpel body 503 along a longitudinal axis of the scalpel body 503. As described above, such as in the above-embodiments having the back part 200b of the external handle 200, the back part 200b may also have a cover shield slot 502 configured to allow for a cover shield 500 to slide thereon and to cover and uncover a blade, according to exemplary embodiments.
According to exemplary embodiments the cover shield 500 covers the blade 504 when the cover shield 500 is slid in the cover shield slot 502 proximal to the scalpel body 503 and is configured to reveal the blade 504 when the cover shield 500 is slid in the cover shield slot 502 distal to the scalpel body 503.
While the present invention has been described with respect to certain preferred embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.
Exemplary embodiments of the present application relate to a surgical scalpel having a safer detachable blade mechanism that will protect healthcare professionals from being inadvertently nicked or cut when using the device having a cover shield and/or a locking scissor action that may be disassembled to facilitate cleaning and sterilization and also prevents inadvertent partial disassembly of the surgical scalpel prior to the need to clean and sterilize the device. Although a surgical scalpel has been described herein, this is merely according to exemplary embodiments, and the features described herein may also be applied to a utility knife, a hunting knife, etc.
inner liner 100
locking cleat 101
blade retention spring arm 102
inferior midpoint locking pin groove 103a
distal locking pin groove 103b
inner liner spring arm 104
inner liner spring arm groove 105
external handle 200
inner surface 201
blade pivot pint 202
inferior midpoint locking pin 203a
distal locking pin 203b
proximal locking pin 203c
proximal locking pin 203d
pivot pin 204
inner liner spring arm window 205
grooved recess 206
blade 300
blade 400
cover shield 500
ball detent lock 501a
ball detent lock 501b
forward detent hole 501c
rear detent hole 501d
cover shield slot 502
scalpel body 503
blade 504
locking spring 505
screw 506a
screw 506b
spring 507a
spring 507b
internal slide bar 508
blade pin 509
pin 510
groove 511
U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.: 62/006,499
This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/134,049 filed Mar. 17, 2015 the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/US2016/022846 | 3/17/2016 | WO | 00 |