title: Scalpel blade changer.
abstract: Surgical knife has been extensively used in surgery for a number of years and is the most widely used surgical instrument in the world at present. Manual removal of the blade can be difficult, particularly when the scalpel is wet. Percutaneous injuries during changing the scalpel blade may lead to serious and potentially fatal infections from blood borne pathogens such as hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and others including cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus and parvovirus B19. In addition to the risk of illness and death after an exposure, psychological trauma and long-term disability are of great concern. Many devices have been developed in an effort to facilitate the removal of the blade from the scalpel, and to render the removal procedure less dangerous. But there is no device to both remove and install the blade at the same time. In particular, the present invention relates to a scalpel blade changer that enables a blade to be removed from a scalpel and retained in the remover and at the same time to install the blade on to the scalpel handle.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Hajipourb@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Monadi Sefidan
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hajipour
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D010322:Parvoviridae Infections / Q000517:prevention & control; D011482:Protective Devices / Q000592:standards*; D013525:Surgical Instruments / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000382:microbiology / Q000592:standards*; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control