Surgical blade holder

Claim 1

A surgical blade holder comprising (a) a handle with a hollow head portion at an obtuse angle relative to the longitudinal axis of said handle; (b) said hollow head portion having a first slot which is long relative to three short slots through the forward most section of the wall thereof; one slot of said three short slots having substantially longitudinal orientation with respect to the head portion and the other two slots on either side of said longitudinal slot at essentially 45 degrees relative thereto to form an arrowhead slot configuration; (c) a shank fixed in said handle passing through said hollow head portion; (d) a blade-retaining ring attached to the anterior portion of said shank; (e) said blade-retaining ring having a slot in the anterior portion thereof for engaging a surgical blade in combination with said three short slots in said head; and (f) means associated with said shank to cause relative motion between said hollow head portion and said shank to move said blade-retaining ring into said first slot in said hollow portion to thereby engage and hold a replaceable surgical blade placed in one of said three short slots for surgery in areas of limited surgical access.