Housing for storage and manipulation of a surgical guide wire

Mechanism for manipulation of a surgical guide wire, comprising:

• a hand held housing including a spiral passageway for containing the guide wire;
• a disk shaped knob having a polygonal or otherwise textured circumference about an axis of rotation;
• an axial shaft extending along the axis of rotation of the knob and confined within a pair of opposed openings in opposite sides of the spiral passageway for securing the knob to the housing with an inner portion of the knob's textured circumference extending into the spiral passageway and into contact with the guide wire and an outer portion of the textured circumference extending out of the housing for facilitating manual rotation of the knob relative to the housing;
• and
• a non-circular bearing defined in the housing for limiting radial movement of the axial shaft relative to the housing,
• wherein:
• the non-circular bearing has an inner surface portion extending towards the guide wire for allowing the circumference of the knob to be pressed inwardly against an outer surface of the guide wire and thereby force an inner surface of the guide wire into intimate contact with an adjacent inner surface of the spiral passageway whereby the guide wire may be immobilized relative to the housing, and an outer bearing surface further from the guide wire for allowing the knob to rotate freely relative to the guide wire and the guide wire to move freely relative to the housing when the axial shaft is in contact with the outer surface of the non-circular bearing;
• and
• the inner and outer surfaces of the non-circular bearing are displaced longitudinally and radially relative to the adjacent inner surface of the spiral passageway, whereby when the surgeon presses the knob firmly in a first direction relative to the adjacent inner surface of the spiral passageway, the knob is forced downwardly towards the guide wire whereby the guide wire may be locked relative to the housing, and when the knob is allowed to move in a second direction opposite from the first direction, the pressure between the guidewire and the passageway is reduced, while still permitting the surgeon to maintain sufficient pressure between the knob and the guide wire to control the movement of the guide wire relative to the housing.