Surgical retractor system and clip-on joint clamp
AssigneeThompson Surgical Instruments, Inc.
InventorSteve Nowak
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A joint clamp for a surgical retractor system includes clamps, a cam bolt, and a cam lever. The cam bolt passes through the clamps. A cam lever comprising a cam head pivotally attached an upper portion the cam bolt to permit rotation between a locked position and an unlocked positions. The joint clamp may include springs which provide a scissors clamp of the clamps with a clip-on feature in which the scissors clamp may clipped-on and clipped-off an object such as a frame member, table post, or retractor handle. The springs may further prevent or reduce a rising movement of the clamps when the cam lever rotates from an unlocked state to a locked state.
Claims20
A clamp comprising:
- a first clamp portion comprising a lower jaw, an upper handle, and first pivot portion between the upper handle and the lower jaw;
- a second clamp portion comprising an upper jaw, a lower handle, and second pivot portion between the lower handle and the upper jaw, wherein second pivot portion of the second clamp portion is pivotably coupled to the first pivot portion of the first clamp portion such that a bottom side of the upper jaw faces a top side of the lower jaw and a bottom side of the upper handle faces a top side of the lower handle;
- a first spring that biases the upper jaw away from the lower jaw;
- and
- a second spring that biases the upper jaw toward the lower jaw.
A system, comprising:
- a longitudinal member having a diameter;
- and
- a clamp comprising:
- a first clamp portion providing a lower jaw and an upper handle of the clamp;
- a second clamp portion providing an upper jaw and a lower handle of the clamp;
- a bolt that passes through the upper handle and the lower handle;
- a first spring that biases the upper jaw away from the lower jaw;
- and
- a second spring that spring biases the upper jaw toward the lower jaw;
- wherein the upper jaw and the lower jaw engage the longitudinal member around the diameter of the longitudinal member;
- and
- wherein the first spring reaches a resting position before a gap between the upper jaw and the lower jaw increases beyond the diameter of the longitudinal member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.