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US 5,514,147 AGranted
Blood vessel clamps
AssigneeMicrosurgical Equipment Ltd.
InventorsWilliam J. Hoskin, Nicholas R. Kemp
Life of this patent
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AssigneeMicrosurgical Equipment Ltd.
InventorsWilliam J. Hoskin, Nicholas R. Kemp
Estimating the term…
A blood vessel clamp has a pair of arms (2,4) each supporting a respective jaw (8,12). The arms are pivotally interconnected by a box joint (26) formed by an intermediate portion (22) of one arm (2) extending through a slot in an intermediate portion of the other arm (4) and imprisoned therein by a pivot pin (28). The internal wall of the slot is provided with a protrusion (30) at a location remote from the pin (28) such that as a part (32) of the intermediate arm (22) enters the slot during the last stages of closure of the jaws (8, 12) it engages the protrusion (30) and forces the opposite walls of the slot apart against their own resilience. This creates an increase stiffness in the joint (26) so that the jaws will remain in any desired position until a predetermined force is applied to over the stiffness whereupon they can be moved to a new position.
A blood vessel clamp comprising a pair of arms, a pair of jaws provided on the arms and having facing surfaces which co-operate to grip a blood vessel, a pivotal connection for pivotally connecting the arms such that they cross over one another at a position intermediate their ends and enabling the jaws to move angularly into and out of mating engagement with each other, characterised in that means are provided for increasing the stiffness against relative angular movement to at least a predetermined value during the final approach of the jaws before they engage one another, to hold the jaws more tightly in any desired position in said final approach, until released in response to a predetermined pressure sufficient to overcome the stiffness.
A clamp according to any preceding claim, wherein each arm has a finger hole at an end thereof opposite the jaw.
A blood vessel clamp comprising a pair of arms, a pair of jaws provided on the arms and having facing surfaces which co-operate to grip a blood vessel, a pivotal connection for pivotally connecting the arms at their first ends and enabling the jaws to move angularly into and out of mating engagement with each other, and means for creating a predetermined stiffness against relative angular movement at least during the final approach of the jaws before they engage one another, to hold the jaws in any desired position in said final approach, until released in response to a predetermined pressure sufficient to overcome the stiffness.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.