Patent ID: 8376942

Claim:
A vaginal speculum comprising: an upper blade member having a downwardly extending lever portion; a lower blade member; and a slide member interconnecting said upper blade member and said lower blade member and permitting relative movement therebetween; and an articulation mechanism in which said lever portion includes an engagement tooth that is selectively engageable with an engagement feature of said slide member for selectively enabling the upper blade member and lower blade member to be angularly articulated along a length of said slide member engagement feature, said articulation mechanism including at least one engagement element that is selectively engageable by a user to provide engagement between a curved arm of said slide member having said engagement feature and the engagement tooth, said at least one engagement element being disposed on said lever portion and including a flexible projecting portion that when engaged by a user, causes said curved arm to be moved out of engagement with said lever portion and permits relative movement between said upper and lower blade members without requiring contact between said slide element engagement feature and said engagement tooth; wherein articulation along the length is in one of two modes.