Surgical instrument

A surgical instrument for positioning a paddle electrode having opposite side edges extending between a leading edge and a trailing edge opposite the leading edge, the paddle electrode having leads extending from the trailing edge, said instrument comprising:

• a pair of flexibly resilient arms operatively coupled at a user end of each arm of said pair of arms, each arm of said pair of arms extending to a working end opposite the corresponding user end, each arm of said pair of arms having a cooperative face facing the other arm of said pair of arms and an outer face facing opposite said cooperative face;
• a jaw formed at and offset from the working end of each arm of said pair of arms, each said jaw having a concave face facing the jaw of the other arm of said pair of arms and a groove extending across said concave face, the width of said groove being adapted to receive a paddle electrode side edge;
• and
• a guide located along each arm of the pair of arms adapted to receive a selected lead of the leads of the paddle electrode when the jaws of said arms of said pair of arms are gripping the paddle electrode;
• wherein:
• the jaws of said pair of arms are separated by a gap that is larger than a distance between the opposite side edges of the paddle electrode when said pair of arms is unflexed;
• said pair of arms is capable of being flexed to reduce the gap separating the jaws of said pair of arms sufficiently to engage the jaws of said pair of arms with the side edges of the paddle electrode to grip the paddle electrode;
• and
• said pair of arms is sufficiently resilient to return said pair of arms to a released configuration in which the gap separating the jaws of said pair of arms is larger than the distance between the opposite side edges of the paddle electrode.

A surgical instrument for positioning a paddle electrode having opposite side edges extending between a leading edge and a trailing edge opposite the leading edge, the paddle electrode having leads extending from the trailing edge, said instrument comprising:

• a pair of flexibly resilient arms operatively coupled at a user end of each arm of said pair of arms, each arm of said pair of arms extending to a working end opposite the corresponding user end, each arm of said pair of arms having a cooperative face facing the other arm of said pair of arms and an outer face facing opposite said cooperative face;
• a jaw formed at and offset from the working end of each arm of said pair of arms, each said jaw having a concave face facing the jaw of the other arm of said pair of arms;
• and
• a guide comprising a hollow cylindrical tube mounted on each arm of said pair of arms adjacent to the working end of the corresponding arm of said pair of arms, said hollow cylindrical tube extending along a centerline of the corresponding arm of said pair of arms and having an interior diameter sized to receive at least one lead of said paddle electrode leads;
• wherein:
• the jaws of said pair of arms are separated by a gap that is larger than a distance between the opposite side edges of the paddle electrode when said pair of arms is unflexed;
• said pair of arms is capable of being flexed to reduce the gap separating the jaws of said pair of arms sufficiently to engage the jaws of said pair of arms with the side edges of the paddle electrode to grip the paddle electrode;
• and
• said pair of arms is sufficiently resilient to return said pair of arms to a released configuration in which the gap separating the jaws of said pair of arms is larger than the distance between the opposite side edges of the paddle electrode.