The invention relates to a medical pump, especially for water jet surgery, inwhich the connection between a pump unit and a pump actuating device is improvedand the operability of the pump is simplified. To this end, the medical pump comprisesthe following: a pump unit comprising at least one piston to be displaced in anassociated cylinder； a pump actuating device comprising an openable and closableholding device for fixing and detaching the pump unit to or from the pump actuatingdevice； openable and closable coupling devices for coupling or decoupling thepiston to or from the pump actuating device； at least one drive device and a controlsystem for actuating the pump unit by displacing the piston, the drive devicebeing designed in a controllable manner for actuating, especially opening and/orclosing, the holding device and/or the coupling devices in such a way that a workingstate or idle state is generated； a detection means which is connected to an inletof the control system in a communicative manner and is embodied in such a way thatit detects a state of use defining a pre-determined position relation betweenthe pump unit and the pump actuating device, and transmits a first detection signal,describing the presence of the pump unit in the pump actuating device, to the controlsystem for controlling the drive device； the control system for processing thefirst detection signal being embodied in such a way that it controls the drivedevice for generating the working state.
