Surgical head clamp

• US 7,661,162 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2007
• Issued: 02/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Gottfried Storz Medizintechnik GmbH & Company KG
• Original Assignee: Gottfried Storz Medizintechnik GmbH & Company KG
• Inventors: Soerensen, Niels, Kreidler, Winfried, Ziaja, Hermann
• Primary Examiner(s): CONLEY, FREDRICK C
• Application Number:
  US11/738,625
• Publication Number:
  US 20070250071A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,030 Days
• Field of Search: 562/2, 563/7, 564/0, 564/3
• US Class Current: 5/622
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/14 Fixators for body parts, e.g. skull clamps; Constructional details of fixators, e.g. pins

Abstract

A surgical head clamp is provided including an essentially U-shaped retaining clip (1) with two holder arms (3, 4), running towards the same side in the plane thereof at the ends of a connecting bar (2). The arm ends (5, 6) of the holder arms have mandrel holders (11) mounted adjustably in bearings that are coaxial to one another. The mandrel holders may be provided with one or more said holding mandrels (12), whereby a first mandrel holder is pivotably fastened at a bearing part (15) of the one arm end (6), which bearing part is adjustable around a common bearing shaft (9), and a second mandrel holder (11) can be adjusted by means of a threaded spindle (10) in a bearing bore (7) of the other said arm end (5). The second mandrel holder (11) includes a guide shank (50) that is provided with a socket bore (54) on the front side, which is mounted coaxially to the bearing shaft (9) in a spring-mounted manner in a axial bore (61) of the threaded spindle (10). The threaded spindle (10) is provided with an external thread and is adjustably mounted in a smooth cylindrical bearing bore (7) of the other arm end (3). The external thread is embodied as a ball thread (23), which has an arcuate-segment profile, with which two balls (24, 25) mesh as contact elements. The balls are arranged in a diametrically opposed, axially fixed manner in the wall (28) of the bearing bore (7) and are held in contact with the ball thread (23) by an adjustable locking lever (35) in the locked position thereof, and which can be brought out of contact with the threaded spindle (10) in another position in order to make the threaded spindle (10) freely displaceable in its said bearing bore (7).

Claims

1. A surgical head clamp comprising:

an essentially U-shaped retaining clip with a connecting bar and a first holder arm and a second holder arm extending in a same direction in a plane of said U-shaped retaining clip at ends of said connecting bar, said first holder arm having a first arm end with a first bearing bore and said second holder arm having a second arm end with a second bearing bore having an inner wall with a smooth cylindrical surface and with two balls arranged in a diametrically opposed, axially fixed manner in said inner wall, said first bearing bore being coaxial to said second bearing bore;

a first mandrel holders mounted adjustably in said first bearing bore and pivotably fastened at a first bearing part of said first arm end, said first bearing part being adjustable around a common bearing shaft;

a second mandrel holder mounted adjustably in said second bearing bore, said second mandrel holder including a threaded spindle provided with an external thread for adjustment and an axial bore and said second mandrel holder including a guide shank provided with a socket bore on a front side, said guide shank being mounted coaxially to said common bearing shaft in a spring-mounted manner in said axial bore of said threaded spindle, said threaded spindle being adjustably mounted in said second bearing bore of said second arm end, said external thread comprising a ball thread with an arcuate-segment profile, said two balls meshing as contact elements with said arcuate-segment profile;

an adjustable locking lever connected to said U-shaped retaining clip and having a locked position, said balls being held in contact with said ball thread by means of said adjustable locking lever in the locked position thereof, and said balls being brought out of contact with said threaded spindle in another position of said locking lever in order to make said threaded spindle freely displaceable in said second bearing bore.

2. A surgical head clamp in accordance with claim 1, wherein said U-shaped retaining clip further comprises a locking ball extending in a radially spring-mounted manner from said second bearing bore for meshing with said ball thread.

3. A surgical head clamp in accordance with claim 1, wherein said balls are each mounted in one of plural radial bores, which are coaxial to one another, of wall sections of said inner wall that fittingly receives said threaded spindle, whereby a dimension of openings of said wall sections are each smaller than the ball diameters.

4. A surgical head clamp in accordance with claim 3, wherein said second holder arm has two plane-parallel and flat outer surfaces, running at right angles to a second holder arm axis, at least in the area of said radial bores, at which outer surfaces said locking lever as a two-arm locking lever, is pivotably arranged, said two-arm locking lever having fork-shaped arms and said radial bores each being covered in a plane of one of boundary surfaces of said second holder arm.

5. A surgical head clamp in accordance with claim 4, wherein said locking lever two said fork-shaped arms each have a plane-parallel inner surface lying on outer surfaces of said second holder arm and which are mounted to pivot at said second holder arm about an eccentric pivot axis, which is parallel to said axis of said radial bores.

6. A surgical head clamp in accordance with claim 5, wherein said locking lever fork-shaped arms are connected to one another by means of a crossbar lying above said holder arm, said locking lever having a gripping part, which can be fixed in the locked position of said locking lever by means of a securing means.

7. A surgical head clamp in accordance with claim 6, wherein said gripping part is embodied as another crossbar connecting the ends of said fork-shaped arms, in whose path of movement a locking slide of the securing means is introduced in a locking manner.

8. A surgical head clamp in accordance with claim 4, wherein said two fork-shaped arms of said locking lever have recesses aligned with one another and which lie on an arc that is concentric to a pivot axis, said balls partly going into recesses for the release of said threaded spindle.

9. A surgical head clamp in accordance with claim 8, wherein the recesses consist of said bores having a diameter that is smaller than a diameter of said balls.

10. A surgical head clamp in accordance with claim 1, wherein said socket bore is located in a head part of said guide shank forming a radial ring shoulder for a compression spring, opposite which stands axially a radial ring shoulder of an axial bore of said threaded spindle, said guide shank being provided, on an end opposing the mounting bore, with a stop element limiting its spring-mounted axial movement.

11. A surgical head clamp in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

a multi-arm mandrel carrier provided with a plurality of said holding mandrels at said guide shank;

a cotter pin provided with a plug-in projection fitting into said socket bore, said socket bore having on a front side, a dome-like depression for a pivotable and rotatable mounting of said multi-arm mandrel carrier provided with a fitting counterprofile.

12. A surgical head clamp in accordance with claim 11, wherein for the pivotable fastening of said multi-arm mandrel carrier, a ball end screw fitting a counterprofile is screwed into a central threaded bore of said cotter pin and is fixed by means of a counterscrew.