Surgical clip-on light pipe illumination assembly

A surgical clip-on light pipe illumination assembly comprising:

• A. a manually-operated clamp adapted to clip onto an abdominal or other tissue wall surrounding a surgical site without damage thereto, said clamp being provided with a light pipe holder;
• and
• B. a short, flexible light pipe formed of a plastic monofilament having a high refractive index surrounded by a cladding tube of lower refractive index and having an optical inlet at its rear end and an optical outlet at its front end, said pipe being retained by the holder at a position at which the front section of the pipe whose front end forms said optical outlet cantilevers from the holder into the surgical site, said front section being ensheathed in a bendable sleeve having dead soft characteristics to orient said optical outlet to adjust the direction of the light beam and to maintain it at its adjusted orientation, the optical inlet of the pipe being coupled to a remote light source whereby the light transmitted through the pipe is discharged from the optical outlet to produce a light beam which is directable into the surgical site to illuminate any region of interest.