Now change the scalpel blade in a jiffy without even touching it

Surgeons can now load or change the scalpel blades without exposing and handling them directly.

Four biomedical students from Georgia Tech University have designed an automatic dispenser called Scal-Pal for scalpel blades much like razor blade dispenser for a razor.

This makes changing or loading a scalpel blade easier and much safer. Currently, surgeons or nurses must rely on another person, who opens the foil packet, to expose the blade and then they grab the blade with a needle holder or another instrument to mount it on the handle.

While exposing the blade from the foil package there is always a chance of injury. But, not anymore.

Scal-Pal works the same way as an automatic razor blade dispenser. The blade is stored inside a box made from pre-recycled polyethylene and when needed to replace or load, the handle is inserted in the box, which comes out with a new blade. The old blade is trapped inside the box. When the box runs out of blades, it is disposed off and a new box is used.

 “Our design works because the blade is never exposed. No one has to touch it directly,” said Sydney Platt, who is one of the four inventors of the device.

Scal-Pal is one of the six inventions chosen for InVenture Prize, an innovation competition held every year at Georgia Tech.

Watch a video of the device.





New Release

Media Courtesy: by Allison Carter