Hand-held surgical instruments employing magnetic couplings for simultaneous rotary and longitudinal oscillations of distal workpieces

A surgical instrument comprising:

• a distally located workpiece;
• a drive shaft;
• an output shaft coaxially aligned with said drive shaft relative to a drive axis and connected operatively to said distally located workpiece;
• and
• drive and driven magnet assemblies connected operatively to said drive and output shafts, respectively, and having permanent magnets arranged to translate continuous rotation of said drive shaft into simultaneous rotary and longitudinal movements of said driven magnet assembly, and hence said distally located workpiece, relative to said drive axis;
• and
• a resilient support member exhibiting torsional and longitudinal resiliency which is operatively connected to said output shaft to allow for said simultaneous rotary and longitudinal movements thereof.

A surgical instrument comprising:

• a drive shaft;
• a distal workpiece;
• an output shaft connected operatively to said distal workpiece and coaxially aligned with said drive shaft along a drive axis;
• and
• magnetic coupling means which magnetically couples said drive and output shafts for translating rotary movements of said drive shaft into simultaneous reciprocal rotary and longitudinal movements of said output shaft relative to said drive axis.

A surgical instrument which comprises:

• a housing,
• an elongate work element extending distally from said housing and moveable in both rotary and longitudinal directions relative to a central drive axis thereof;
• a rotatable drive shaft;
• and
• a magnetic coupling positioned within said housing which includes a drive magnet assembly connected operatively to said drive shaft, and a driven magnet assembly connected operatively to said elongate work element, wherein
• said drive and driven magnet assemblies include magnetically cooperative permanent magnets arranged in such a manner to translate continuous rotation of said drive magnet assembly about said central axis into simultaneous rotary and longitudinal oscillations of said driven magnet assembly relative to said drive axis to thereby move said elongate work element simultaneously reciprocally in rotary and longitudinal directions relative to said central axis;
• and
• a resilient coupling member exhibiting torsional and longitudinal resiliency which is connected operatively to said driven magnet assembly to allow for said simultaneous rotary and longitudinal oscillations thereof.