Importance

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Abstract

A surgical instrument including a reusable handle and a removable sheathed blade assembly comprising an elongate sheath with a plurality of elongate surgical blades longitudinally received within said sheath and selectively projectable therefrom along guided paths for exposure of the working heads of the blades. The working heads define, respectively, a cutting head and a gripping head. The sheathed assembly is introduced an operating site whereat the gripping head is exposed and engaged with tissue to be cut. The cutting head is subsequently moved into cutting engagement with the gripped tissue, after which both blades are retracted into the sheath and the sheathed blades removed from the operating site. The cutting blade is directly manually reciprocated with the gripping blade engaged with the cutting blade through a connection which allows for reciprocation of the gripping blade in response to reciprocal movement of the cutting blade, or, alternatively, reciprocation of the cutting blade independent of the gripping blade.

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First Claim