Surgical saw and methods therefor

A surgical saw comprising

• a flexible, endless cutting band constructed as one piece and including a plurality of spaced cutting teeth for resecting anatomical tissue and connected to one another by band segments;
• a stationary guide arm for guiding said cutting band for movement therealong in a cutting direction to resect anatomical tissue;
• a drive mechanism for driving said cutting band to move relative to said guide arm in said cutting direction;
• a housing for mounting said guide arm and said drive mechanism;
• and
• a handpiece for being coupled with said housing to supply power to said drive mechanism.

A method of resecting bone comprising the steps of

• providing a surgical saw having a pair of flexible, endless cutting bands for cutting bone, a pair of guide arms coplanar and parallel with one another for guiding the cutting bands, respectively, for movement in a cutting direction along defined paths and having distal ends and proximal ends;
• moving the cutting bands relative to and around the guide arms, respectively, in the cutting direction along the defined paths;
• inserting the distal ends of the guide arms in the bone to move the cutting bands through the bone in the cutting direction to resect the bone along the plane of the guide arms;
• advancing the guide arms forwardly into the bone to resect the bone to a desired depth;
• and
• withdrawing the guide arms from the bone to withdraw the cutting bands therefrom.