Surgical instrument

A medical instrument comprising a proximal control handle and a distal tool that are intercoupled by an elongated instrument shaft that is meant to pass internally of an anatomic body, proximal and distal bendable members that respectively intercouple said proximal control handle and said distal tool with said instrument shaft, cable actuation means disposed between said bendable members, for controlling the positioning of said distal tool from said control handle, and a locking mechanism for fixing the position of the tool at a selected position;

• said locking mechanism comprising a ball and socket structure coupled between the control handle and proximal bendable member and a locking member for locking said ball and socket structure and having locked and unlocked states;
• a compressible ring defining a partially spherical shaped socket of the ball and socket structure;
• a hollow ball member of the ball and socket structure having an internal hollow chamber and an outer partially spherical shaped surface that mates with the partially spherical shaped socket;
• said locking member including an annular locking ring disposed about the compressible ring, and in the locked state, compressing the socket relative to the ball member so as to fix the position of the proximal bendable member and, in turn, the distal bendable member and tool.

A surgical instrument comprising:

• an instrument shaft having proximal and distal ends;
• a tool disposed from the distal end of the instrument shaft;
• a control handle coupled from the proximal end of the instrument shaft;
• a distal bendable member for coupling the distal end of said instrument shaft to said tool;
• a proximal bendable member for coupling the proximal end of said instrument shaft to said control handle;
• actuation means extending between said distal and proximal bendable members for coupling motion of said proximal bendable member to said distal bendable member for controlling the positioning of said tool;
• and a tool actuation member that is mounted at and operable from the control handle;
• said tool actuation member comprising an actuation lever extending from the control handle so as to be operable by a user, and a linkage mechanism supported at the control handle and operable from the actuation lever;
• said linkage mechanism including a plurality of separate links, one of which is pivotally supported with the actuation lever.