This invention relates to surgical tool holders, and more particularly, to holders of rotary surgical cutting tools.
Surgical tools and their respective holders have to be kept clean and sterile before any use in a hospital environment in order to minimize risk of transfer of disease or infection from patient to patient following the emergence of certain “prions” that are not killed by normal hospital sterilization and thus need to be physically removed through washing and rinsing. A surgical tool, for example for preparing for the fitting of a hip prosthesis, works in a medium which causes considerable soiling of the tool and of the tool holder. Despite the importance of doing so, the thorough cleaning of these devices is difficult. Surgical tool holders of the prior art are designed such that, in certain cases, washing and rinsing is generally not an effective way of cleaning the tool as some of the more resilient bugs are not destroyed. This is due to the small spaces left between component parts which allow only minimal access by cleaning agents.
Further, small diameter surgical cutting tools of the prior art are generally of solid construction. When cutting, such tools do not provide for the collection of bone chips for use in grafting.
What is needed therefore is a surgical tool holder which is quickly and simply disassembled for cleaning and sterilization. Still further, what is needed is a small diameter hollow tool that provides for the collection of bone chips for grafting.