Suturing instrument for surgical operation

Claim 1

A suturing instrument for surgical operations having a needle and a shuttle operated to form a needle thread and a shuttle thread supplied thereto and to interlock the needle thread and the shuttle thread so as to form lock stitches for suturing up a wound or an incision, the instrument comprising a housing having a frame; thread-supplying means including a turnable bobbin loaded with a suture-thread to be supplied to the needle and the shuttle; thread-supply control means including braking means mounted in said housing and normally pressed against said bobbin to prevent a turning movement thereof; and releasing means, said releasing means having an accessible part positioned outside of said housing, said thread-supply control means including a turnable flange mounted on said bobbin and partially extending outwards of the housing to be accessible to an operator, said flange having an outer circumference formed with a plurality of grooves; said braking means including a braking axle secured to said frame, a braker on said axle and having a portion turnably mounted in said housing and selectively engageable or disengageable in one of said grooves, and a spring normally pressing said portion against said flange, said releasing means being operated to displace said portion of said braker away from said flange to allow the turning movement of said flange and said bobbin therewith to permit the suture-thread to be drawn out from said bobbin during operation, or to displace said portion into engagement with one of said grooves to permit tightening of the suture-thread, said thread-supply control means and said releasing means being operative for adjusting the amount of the suture-thread supplied to the needle and the shuttle to a required stitching pitch so that if, after tightening, the supplied thread amount is less than the stitching pitch said flange is released by said releasing means from said braker and the bobbin is allowed to turn, and if the supplied thread amount is more than the stitching pitch, the flange is rotated by the operator in a counter direction without being released from said braker, thereby adjusting the supplied thread amount while the needle remains in the flesh.