This is a laparoscopic instrument intended to facilitate intra-corporeal tying of knots in a free strand of suture. The shafts of two small diameter laparoscopic graspers are combined within a common external sheath, and both are joined to a common handle to be used by one hand. One grasper has a regular scissors type of handle, is stationary, and acts as a recipient grasper, while the other grasper has no handle, but is able to rotate and to slide, and acts as a donor grasper. The instrument enables the head end of a suture to be actively passed from the donor grasper to the adjacent recipient grasper, passing behind and around the tail strand, forming a knot, in the same manner as in the tying of shoes-laces. The current instrument introduces a new mechanism, whereby the required rotational movements are automatically produced by the sliding motion.
